Tell us about the science and technology priorities of your government
Our resources are meagre, so we consider it prudent to concentrate on a few critical areas: microelectronics, capital goods, biotechnology, biodiesel and pharmaceuticals. Currently, we spend less than 1 per cent of our gross domestic product (gdp) on science and technology. But there are plans to increase this expenditure to 2 per cent of the gdp in the near future. Initially, we had aimed to attain this target by the end of this year. But that seems unlikely. Brazil borrowed heavily during the earlier regime and debt servicing has left us with very little funds for fresh investments in science and technology. But unlike most other developing countries, about 40 per cent funds required in research are put in by the industry