'South-South Cooperation Should Also Be About Technology', Says Brasilinvest's Mario Garnero

SAO PAULO, April 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Mario Garnero, Chairman of Brasilinvest, Brazil's pioneer merchant bank, stated this week at a scientific conference in Sao Paulo that Brazil's stalwart position in clean energies places the country as a benchmark for contemporary development models. "Bioenergy, once an imperative for Brazil's automotive industry as it dealt with oil shocks in the 1970s, is now an across-the-board trend in Brazil. It has become core to Brazil in its drive towards technological innovation, sustainable agriculture and cleaner urban environments," he said.

Garnero's address was delivered at the "Brazil, Italy and Africa for Sustainable Development" Conference held in Sao Paulo by Forum das Americas, the Government of the State of Sao Paulo, the Ministry of the Environment of the Government of Italy and the Global Bioenergy Partnership, a G-20 support group on the intersection aspects of bioenergy and sustainability.

Other speakers at the Conference, included Corrado Clini, Environment Minister of the Mario Monti Government in Italy, and Jose Goldemberg, former Minister for the Environment and Rector of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil's leading research and higher-learning institution.

At the Conference, Garnero reinforced his global advocacy of broader use of bioenergy and biofuels, particularly as the backbone for a new South-South Cooperation. "We are no longer in a position to exchange information on low value-added sectors or base the entire South-South dialogue on long-gone practices of technical assistance."

The Brazilian business leader, who also chairs the United Nations Association in Brazil, believes, "Latin America and Africa cannot limit themselves to their 'Ricardian' comparative advantages when it comes to biofuels."  He adds that, "land and climate definitely boost us ahead, but we will underperform if we don't build the necessary technological common ground for innovation."

Garnero hails the participation of Italy as a catalyzing element in South-South technological exchange. "We should not bulk up our competitiveness in opposition to the Global North, but, where appropriate, in partnership with it."

To this end Garnero has partnered with the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in promoting groundbreaking conferences on Latin America's development. He is a firm supporter of the "Science Without Borders" program enacted by President Dilma Rousseff, who will herself deliver a talk on Brazil's challenges in research & development at a joint session held by Harvard University and MIT next Tuesday in Cambridge, MA.

Anamelia Meirelles
[email protected]
T: 55-11-3094-7984

SOURCE Forum das Americas