Investment in research grows 10% a year in Brazil, points US report
Valor Econômico
Brazil is one of the countries with the fastest-growing investments on research and development in the world, says the Council of Science and Engineering of the United States, which has just released its biannual report, considered one of the most important guides for the formulation of the American public policies in the area.
The central focus of the report is the United States, but, when international comparisons are made, Brazil sometimes ranks well, such as in the expansion of the investments on research, estimated at 10% a year. In the spotlight among the emerging countries, however, is China, with a growth rate of nearly 20%. The Brazilian performance is also positive in the number of publications of articles in international academic magazines. "Science and technology are no longer a province of the developed nations", concludes the report. "They have become more democratic".
The world investments in science and technology are calculated at US$ 1.1 trillion in 2007, the year with the latest data available, which is equivalent to twice the US$ 525 billion seen in 1996. "The investments on research and developments double every 11 years", says the report. Brazil has merely a fraction of that amount, with investments calculated at US$ 13 billion in 2006. The United States keeps the leadership in the ranking of investments, with US$ 369 billion; Japan comes next with US$ 148 billion; and then, China appears in the third place, with US$ 102 billion.
The data on the investment in research are collected by the OECD, the club of wealthy countries, and include only its members and some selected countries. Brazil, which is not an OECD member, is not included in the statistics. But the report uses data collected by the Unesco, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to show that Brazil is becoming more important in the area of research and development.
Private companies are responsible for most of the investments made in science and technology. In the United States, their participation gets to 72%. Brazil received US$ 571 million in investments on research from the American multinationals, ahead of India (US$ 310 million), but behind China (US$ 804 million). Most of the investments from American multinationals in Brazil goes to the sector of transports and equipment, in which the car industry, with 53% of the investments, is inserted. Then comes the chemical sector (24%) and the machinery industry (8.4%).
In 2007, Brazil had 11,885 articles published in academic maganizes, well above 1995's 3,436. "Brazil has the highest growth rate in Latin America among the countries that produce more than 1,000 articles a year, with growth of 10.9%, followed by Mexico (6.7%), Chile (5.8%) and Argentina (4.8%)", says the report.