Brazil and Mexico will create virtual centers

mexico brazil economy

Brazil and Mexico will create virtual centers in nanotechnology and biotechnology

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) - Brazil and Mexico will create virtual centers of nanotechnology and biotechnology to promote technological cooperation and joint training of professionals in these two areas of science, under an agreement signed today by both countries.

The agreement was signed after the meeting that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia today had with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, on the last day of the latter's visit to Brazil.

Besides the two agreements on cooperation in science and technology, the leaders of the two largest economies in Latin America signed a memorandum of understanding in the scientific, technological and academic innovation.

The Brazilian-Mexican Virtual Center on Nanotechnology (CBMNano) was founded with the aim of promoting scientific exchange between the two countries and the training of human resources in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology in Brazil and Mexico.

Its aim is to promote the creation of binational research centers to develop projects aimed at obtaining new knowledge, products and processes that are nanometer-scale economic and social interest to both countries.

For its part, the Brazilian-Mexican Virtual Center of Biotechnology (CBMBio) will aim to promote scientific cooperation and training of professionals of both countries in the field of biotechnology.

Its mission is to encourage the dissemination of biotechnology as a tool of innovation in the industrial sector through the promotion of events and the realization of joint research and development.

Brazil, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology, is the country with better infrastructure to develop nanotechnology in Latin America thanks to the number of institutions and specialists in various areas that are involved in studies of manipulation of nanoparticles.

While in 2005 Brazil had 1,300 researchers working off the area, Mexico had just eleven groups in nanotechnology research.

The ministry said Brazil has great potential for application of nanotechnology in the pharmaceutical industry, medical, cosmetics and materials development that benefit the environment, and fuel cell production in the electricity sector.

http://spanish.news.cn/tec/2009-08/18/c_1328721.htm