Government of Brazil and ECLAC Create Programme to Train Promoters of Science and Technology

(Brasilia, 31 May 2010) The Government of Brazil and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) signed a cooperation agreement today to foment capacity-building of promoters of science, technology and innovation in countries of the region.

The agreement was signed by the Minister of Science and Technology of Brazil, Sérgio Machado Rezende, and the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, during the Thirty-third Session of ECLAC taking place in Brasilia.

The signing ceremony was attended by the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil, Luiz Antonio Rodrigues Elias, the Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Antonio Prado, and Ambassador Pedro Carneiro de Mendonça, Undersecretary General of Economic and Technological Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil and President of theThirty-third Session.

The agreement calls for the creation of country offices to train science, technology and innovation policy promoters as a way to heighten the capabilities of these countries in those fields and facilitate the relationship among national and regional policymakers.

Specialized training programmes will be established in cooperation with universities and scientific research institutions which will focus on current issues and the new challenges in science, technology and innovation.

Subsidies for designing and improving national policies in these fields in Brazil and other participating countries will also be promoted.

Brazil began a plan of action in science and technology four years ago with the participation of the federal and state governments, said Minister Machado during the signing ceremony. "The first priority of this plan is to heighten international cooperation in this field, especially in Latin America, and that is precisely what the agreement with ECLAC pursues," he stated.

Alicia Bárcena thanked the minister for the opportunity to create this programme, "which will allow us to create a broad network of science and technology in the region, with the support of Brazil".

More information on the Thirty-third session of ECLAC is available on the webpage.

For enquiries and interviews, please contact Cláudio Tourinho, of CDN Comunicación Corporativa, tourinho@cdn.com.br; telephones: (61) 3704-7660; (61) 8117-7313, or ECLAC's Public Information and Web Services Section, dpisantiago@cepal.org; telephones: (56-2) 210-2040/2149. Mobile phones: (56 9) 88390573, (56-9) 7967-8306, (56-9) 8839-0576.