Brazil and SA have a lot of knowledge to share and a lot of benefits to gain from each other, delegates heard at the Brazilian Software Partnership Seminar held in Sandton yesterday.
Jos'e Cusnir, international business development consultant for non-profit software standards organisation Softex, believes it is time for SA and Brazil to get together and learn about each other.
"Brazil's IT spend amounts to $12.278 million a year. We have broadband in 3.7 million households," he said. "We are very focused, like SA, on what we call the digital inclusion [SA's digital divide]."
As part of this digital inclusion initiative, Brazil is creating Web centres for all citizens, a shared IT infrastructure, and systems development in support of social projects, among others, explained Luis Gustavo Loyola dos Santos, IT corporate manager for Serpro, a company providing ICT services to the government.
"The IT industry in Brazil has been growing at 10% since 2001," said Cusnir. "Our areas of expertise include financial services, IT security, e-government, telecommunications, enterprise applications, and education and e-learning."
M'arcio Gir~ao, VP of Softex, said of SA and Brazil's proposed partnership: "Brazil and SA will collaborate on equal terms, as there is a lot to co-operate on. The area of telecoms, being one of Brazil's 'icons', is one in which we can help in exponentially."
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