Opportunity for EU Regions to pair with Minas Gerais

By:DeputyRepresentative Belo Horizonte
Business Opportunities | News

05

set 2018

The sate of Minas gerais invites EU Regions to express their interest to collaborate in a pairing action with Minas Gerais, located in the Southeast of Brazil. The region has around 21,100.000 inhabitants and a GDP per capita of US$ 38,600,000.00 (conversion date: 2018). The Governor of the State of Minas Gerais formally represents the region in the IUC-LAC Project.

The State strategy named “International Matters Network” enabled the region to centralise required actions to integrate quintuple helix national and international actors in order to promote an increased focus on exports, especially for SMEs. Such strategy facilitates capillarity of information between all State secretariats and institutions.

Nevertheless, the region is currently still working towards developing appropriate diagnosis and monitoring public policies in order to enhance its ability to obtain  external funding and to both prospect and implement solutions in areas such as:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Blockchain
  • Business intelligence
  • Geo-technology
  • Distance education
  • Information security

Pairing with a EU region shall enable Minas Gerais to refine its current Innovation Strategy in light of an adapted RIS3 approach in order to integrate quintuple helix actors as well as to define priorities for investments. Moreover, establishing a long-term cooperation with a EU partner shall leverage alignment and adaptation of internal policies, thus facilitating trade negotiations between both regions, the joint development of innovation strategies and sustainable practices, as well as the exchange of technologies, methodologies, knowledge and experiences.

The State Government of Minas Gerais will enable the entire technical staff of the State International Relations for monitoring and executing this pairing action with the selected EU region. This technical staff will also be responsible for articulating with the specific and competent areas of the State of Minas Gerais to work at each niche of the action plan that will be jointly developed. The government will also endeavour to seek other complementary sources of funding, depending on the needs of each joint pilot project developed through the IUC-LAC joint project implementation.

In this context, in terms of specific niches for cooperation, it is important to highlight for potential Dutch cooperation:

  • Trade exchange: connection between companies based in Minas Gerais and knowledge and business networks in the European Union selected region, aiming at joint projects or initiatives related to technological innovation and export promotion, in particular of SMEs.
  • Smart Cities: develop technologies and both joint R&D and businesses in areas such as mobility, industry 4.0, sustainability, biofuels, entrepreneurship education and innovation. Different arrangements are possible, including inter-institutional cooperation between regional and foreign universities, cooperation between regional companies and foreign start-ups, between regional start-ups and foreign companies, development of partnerships for the development of biofuels with foreign companies, among others.
  • Development of joint work agendas in mines and management of the period following mineral exploration: promotion of the strengthening of mineral areas or old mining areas, together with the improvement of alternative technologies for tailings disposal, as well as the recovery and conservation of biodiversity and a contribution to fight against pollution.
  • EU certification for cheese production: within the state’s competitive dairy industry, a training effort would be required to enable a large proportion of the highest quality dairy products to be certified by the EU, accrediting companies to export not only to the EU but also to other markets that require such certification. The strategy would serve to consolidate cheese from the high gastronomy of Minas Gerais, such as Serro and Canastra, creating denominations of controlled origin and obtaining the proper certification of handling, production and export, within the requirements of the EU.

For further reading and a link to the application please visit the IUC website. http://www.eurada.org/index.php/la-regions/ and then select the Minas Gerais region.

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