Brazil Seeks Larger Place In Global Space Industry

 

Commitment Going Forward

Looking ahead, the role of the private sector in Brazil’s satellite programs will loom large. Despite the Brazilian economy’s current state of health, and despite the tax revenues enjoyed by the national budget, many experts are asking one crucial question: How hard is the national government pushing to engage the private sector?

In October 2005, Brazil’s government brought into force the first national innovation law in Latin America. The law’s three main components are incentives for partnerships linking universities, research institutes and private companies; incentives to encourage the participation of universities and research institutes in the innovation process; and incentives for promoting innovation within private companies. As a result of the new law, Brazil now encourages both public and private companies to share research staff, funding and facilities, including scientific laboratories. This was previously forbidden — since public funds would be subsidizing private businesses. Another piece of legislation enacted June 2005 created fiscal incentives designed to promote technology innovation.

Some Brazilian industrialists criticize the government for not allocating the resources necessary to put the new legislation into practice, and Sergio Rezende, minister of Science and Technology, says that an extra $90 million will be spent on innovation in the private sector above the normal allocation. This new increase represents about one-sixth of the Ministry’s total annual budget.

How is the country’s space-related research being targeted? Instead of conducting generic research, at INPE, investments flow into projects which respond to well-defined Brazilian demands.

One initiative has been the free distribution of satellite images that encourage the creation of new medium-sized companies working in the geo-information sector. New remote sensing applications developed at INPE have focused on the marketing of free satellite data. Information related to weather and climate and the evolution of forecasting tools has been an important factor for the hyper-growth now underway within the country’s agribusiness development. “The value comes from the use. What is the point of having the best orbital data or on climate if they are neither available, nor being used”, says Câmara. With a growth in demand for its services from customers in the telecommunications, automotive, informatics and medical fields, among others, INPE’s Integration and Test Laboratory is undergoing further expansion.

“Brazil’s accomplishments in space to date are less than might be expected of a country which wants to be seen as the leader in Latin America, which has many technically expert scientists and engineers, and could benefit from a variety of space applications,” but here is a sense that Brazil’s best days in space are still to come,” says Logsdon.

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