Previous Editions | Press room | PDF version | Unicamp website | Subscribe to JU | Edition 227 - from September 1st to 7th, 2003
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Cover
Article - Shot in the foot
University & Innovation
As per the music
MRI
Reform: social policies
Reform: praxis and logic
Heloísa: resistance
Technological Park
Unicamp in the press
Panel of the Week
Job opportunities
Theses of the week
Society: dilemmas
The `dirty paper´
 

9

Viability study
for park installation
technology leaves in 2004
First surveys were presented to the
state secretary of Science and Technology

CLAYTON LEVY

 

The state secretary of Science and Technology, Jo�o Carlos Meirelles: �Unicamp will be the hard core of the system�

A Unicamp's Innovation Agency (Inovacamp) is expected to complete the economic feasibility study and investment plan for the implementation of a new technology park around the university within nine months. The first surveys of the study, which includes the participation of researchers from the Center for Social and Urban Studies at Unicamp (Nesur), were presented last Thursday to the state secretary of Science and Technology, João Carlos Meirelles, by rector Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz. The development of the study already has funding worth R$2,8 million. The resources will come from the federal government, through the Studies and Projects Financier (R$ 1,3 million); state government (R$1,2 million); and municipal administration (R$300 thousand).

In this first phase of the study, two cost and return rate simulations were carried out. With a low occupation density, using half of the area for residences and the other half for industry and commerce, the overall value of the project would be around US$1,1 billion. With a medium density, 40% for residences and 60% for industry and commerce, the overall value of the project would rise to US$1,6 billion.

The study authors made it clear, however, that these are only initial estimates. The complete study will have nine major surveys, which will include the profile of the area, financial engineering for incorporation, legal aspects and urban plan, among others. The park is expected to occupy an area of ​​seven million square meters made up of private properties.
The area, around Unicamp, is also close to other research centers, such as the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS); Research and Development Center (CPqD); and the Bioinformatics Center of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). The region is also home to several technology-based companies, including ABC Xtal, a pioneer in the production of national optical fiber, and AsGa, the largest manufacturer of optical communications equipment in the country. In addition to the park around Unicamp, the state government is also facilitating studies for the implementation of two other technology parks, one in São Carlos and the other in São Paulo. Read below the main excerpts from the interview given by Meirelles after the presentation of the study.


JU – Do the three parks to be installed in the state have the same characteristics?
Meirelles – No. They are specific characteristics because each one has a peculiar vocation depending on the industrial environment. At this stage we are dealing with exactly that. Here in Campinas we are listening to the Rectory of Unicamp to identify this vocation. We are now entering the adjustment phase to verify the specific purpose of the three parks and the area they will occupy in the real concept of a technology park.

JU – What concept is this?
Meirelles - A central unit in which the intelligence that will be made available to a group of companies that would be located in this area with their research and development centers or their production lines would be concentrated. The park has a real estate concept, not in the common sense of subdividing an area, but in the sense of planning the available areas so that companies interested in setting up in this high-tech center can be made viable. In the case of Campinas, the center would be directly linked to Unicamp's talent in the specific sectors chosen for this park. Unicamp is already identifying some sectors considered priorities and, in the future, other demands will arise that will also be addressed. It is a new dynamic for placing the university's talent at the disposal of production, which in turn will become a huge frontier of opportunities for students from the university itself who, after graduating, will be able to engage in one of these companies or do the your own enterprise. Unicamp will function as the hard core of the system.

JU – Is the economic moment appropriate for this type of venture?
Meirelles - Now, more than never. At a time when we are experiencing stagnation in the economy, with recession in some sectors, it is exactly the best time to put university talent at the service of new opportunities, which are combined with important companies in the technology sector. The companies that will set up shop in the technology park have a medium and long-term vision and are not limited to the crisis situation in which we live. This is part of a new development plan for the state of São Paulo. We need to move up a notch in this development. The technology park is part of this new concept. Place talent so that companies in the technology sector can incorporate all this talent into their production and quickly generate a new frontier of work, income and development, with products not only for the domestic market, but also for exports.

JU – Is the implementation of technology parks part of the state government's strategy to increase imports by 50% within five years?
Meirelles – Yes. Last year we exported US$ 20 billion and, based on a series of actions started this year, we hope to increase exports by around 10% per year from next year onwards. Therefore, from 2004 onwards, we will have an effective increase of US 2 billion in the sum of exports as a result of this new model that includes productive arrangements organized in at least 30 mapped segments, such as footwear, furniture, medical equipment and software. These are productive arrangements that involve several municipalities in the same region. We are entering these chains and checking what the major bottlenecks are, which may be concentrated in the lack of raw materials, technology, labor or company management. The idea is to create a concept of adding value and enabling these products to be exported.

JU – How is this work being done with software production in the Campinas region?
Meirelles – We are organizing. There is a cultural problem at the origin of all these arrangements. Each businessman sees his neighbor as an adversary and not a partner. We want to organize a great partnership. It is not possible for a company with small production to have its own market. It will have to partner with other companies to offer the products en masse, even though each one preserves its brand. We have a group at the Secretariat of Science and Technology working specifically with several software companies.

 


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