Fostering technological development in Brazil

The Brazilian government recently approved measures to equalise the rate of interest on funding granted by the study and projects financing body Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (Finep) for technological and scientific research and development. This means that scientific and technological projects will in effect be partly subsidised by the Treasury. The measures have now been submitted to the National Congress for review and are expected to reduce the cost of funding investment in R&D in the manufacturing sector, currently 10 per cent.