(CNN) — As the “B” in BRIC (one of the world’s fastest-growing economies alongside Russia, India and China), Brazil may very well owe its force to an emerging business and technology district in the heart of Sao Paulo, centered around an upscale avenue called Luis Carlos Berrini in the neighborhood of Brooklin.
The modern buildings of Morumbi in Brooklin line the Marginal highway along the Pinheiros River.
The modern buildings of Morumbi in Brooklin line the Marginal highway along the Pinheiros River.
“There’s been a transformation from a sleepy outpost in Sao Paulo to perhaps the city’s most dynamic area in terms of new growth, new buildings and new companies,” observes Bill Hinchberger, the founding editor of Brazilmax, an online travel guide to Brazil.
Of course, this transformation didn’t happen overnight. Development began in the 1930′s, from a quaint rural outpost to a middle-class residential neighborhood of predominantly single-family, chalet-style homes of German and British expatriates, alongside a favela.
The commercial growth of Brooklin — named after the now-defunct New York trolley-car line which terminated in that neighborhood — began with the general movement of banks from Rio de Janeiro to Brazil’s biggest city near the country’s newly established (yet diplomatically dull) capital of Brasília in 1960.
In the following decades, more brands and businesses moved over from Rio to Sao Paulo, hotels took over vacant lots, and the favela was razed to make way for more office buildings.
While residential (as well as dining and nightlife) development has been slow to develop in comparison, the influx of outsiders and renewal of generations has resulted in a stimulating mix of new residents and commuters.
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“Since the development of the late 1990′s, Berrini is becoming the fourth downtown of Sao Paulo, after Centro, Paulista (a symbol of the 20th century city) and Faria Lima [in neighboring Pinheiros],” says Hinchberger, who lived in Brazil from 1986 to 2008, most of that time in Brooklin.
Today, the region around Avenida Berrini hosts a quorum of high-technology multinational firms and their executives, including AT&T, HP, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Philips, Samsung, Sun Microsystems, and even Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
But perhaps more telling is the shift of headquarters of Brazil’s largest and internationally renowned media conglomerate, Globo, from its traditional home in Rio to its new stronghold in Brooklin, Sao Paulo.
Other Brazilian media and IT giants such as Terra Internet and Abril have also set up shop on Avenida Berrini, with a slew of software start-ups filling in the side-streets.
So is Berrini set to be Brazil’s own up-and-coming Silicon Valley?
“I think it’s overblown to call it a Silicon Valley,” responds Hinchberger.
“Brazil has a problem in terms of IT with fairly restrictive laws on the importation of hardware, which just makes everything more expensive. The price of any computer is about twice as much as in the U.S. Even local manufacturers don’t charge cut-rate prices, because they know they can get a free ride [on the market rates].”
But if general access to hardware hinders distribution, Hinchberger agrees that software for Web and mobile development is soaring.
This should come as no surprise, given that Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country in both area and population, and ranks fifth worldwide in number of mobile phone and Internet users.
Mobile mecca
With a population of 190 million, Brazil registered over 152 million mobile phones (of which 3.2 million 3G devices) as of February 2009, resulting in a market penetration rate of 80 percent, according to the Brazilian telecommunications portal Teleco.
Teleco also reports that Brazil’s four major carriers — Vivo, TIM, Claro and Oi — together hold 91 percent of the market.
And let us not forget, Sao Paulo is the world’s fourth-largest city, as well as Brazil’s biggest and richest megalopolis.
Among the foreign companies with their foot in the door of this exploding online and mobile market is the year-old start-up Nimbuzz — headquartered in the Netherlands, with its first overseas office in Sao Paulo — which offers a free, mobile solution for instant messaging, VoIP calling, file sending and social networking through existing platforms.
“Nimbuzz is located about five minutes from Avenida Berrini,” says Marcelo Calbucci, Nimbuzz’s Brazilian marketing analyst.
“Many direct-to-consumer companies (D2C), operators, Internet companies and general technology companies are located around Berrini, so the location has helped in meeting new opportunities and building business relationships more frequently, with companies that relate directly to Nimbuzz’s core business.”
But while some 152 million Brazilians may have a mobile handset, a staggering 80 percent of them use a pre-paid phone card, making the public’s investment in mobile services a challenge.
Nimbuzz, however, remains optimistic about evolving mentalities, as the company’s Berrini branch focuses on shifting Brazilians’ already buzzing online activity to their handheld devices.
“The online social habits of the Brazilian population match Nimbuzz features, mainly with Orkut and MSN, but with good participation also from Skype, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others,” says Calbucci.
Just around the corner from the Nimbuzz office is Brasigo, another year-old start-up, which offers an online space for Brazilians to interact and share with each other, beginning with a user-generated question-and-answer service.
Like Nimbuzz, the company may be starting small, but unlike global models such as Yahoo! Answers, Brasigo has the advantage of being born and raised in Brooklin(by Cherise Fong, For CNN)
BRASILIA — France has struck a landmark outline accord to sell 36 Rafale fighters for between four and seven billion dollars to Brazil, potentially the first foreign customer for the expensive jet, officials said.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Monday after meeting French leader Nicolas Sarkozy that advanced contract talks were being held, though French maker Dassault Aviation said it did not expect a final accord until 2010.
France has been seeking a foreign buyer for the multi-role combat jet for more than a decade.
A Dassault spokesman said the company hopes to finalize the sale in 2010. Even though no final accord has been struck, a Dassault spokesman in Paris told AFP: “President Lula’s declaration clearly means that the Rafale has won the competition.”
He declined to put a precise value on the deal.
France has provisionally agreed to transfer the technology to be able to build the jets to Brazil. France is also to buy about 10 military transport aircraft Brazil’s air force plans to build with Embraer, the national aircraft manufacturer.
The French company hopes the success will boost its chances in tenders made by India, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Libya and Greece.
Dassault has previously lost export competitions for Morocco, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the Netherlands.
The Brazil contest has been characterized by fierce lobbying by US group Boeing, which put forward its F/A-18 Super Hornet used by the US Navy and Australian air force, and Sweden’s Saab, promoting its Gripen NG. The rivals had also said they were willing to share technology with Brazil.
Brazil has been concerned by past US vetoes on the export of Brazilian aircraft built with some US components, and the fact the Gripen features a US-made General Electric engine and an Italian-made combat radar.
Throughout its tender process, Brazil has emphasized that full technology-sharing took priority over cost.
Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the proposed deal would mean Brazil could sell Rafale’s that it makes to the rest of Latin America.
“What’s important for us is to have access to the technology to make this plane in Brazil. That’s what we’re currently negotiating,” Lula said.
Lula said that his country wanted closer military ties with France.
“We are definitively consolidating a strategic partnership we started in 2005,” Lula said in a joint news conference with Sarkozy in Brasilia.
The deal adds to 10 billion dollars’ worth of agreements Brazil has already struck with France to buy five submarines (one to be converted to nuclear power) and 50 military transport helicopters.
Brazil’s only aircraft carrier is a mothballed vessel bought from France in 2000.
Lula, who completes his maximum second mandate at the end of next year, has said he believes Brazil is destined to be one of the great powers of the 21st century.
A country’s “independence also has to be a technological one,” he told reporters.
Brazil’s government wants to give Latin America’s biggest nation military muscle commensurate with its swelling economic and political clout — and its ambitions to win a permanent seat on a reformed UN Security Council.
It also wants the capabilitys to maintain control over its two key resources: its vast Amazon rainforest, and recently discovered offshore oil fields that could make the country one of the world’s top 10 oil producers.
The military transport planes that Brazil is selling, the KC-390, are designed to carry lighter loads than the delayed Airbus A400 heavy military transport plane France is committed to.
Brazilian high-technology EBCO Systems company announced that they will invest US$ 100 million in Brazil to expand the already existing structure and build another two factories to produce equipment for X rays used in the inspection of cargo containers.
The announcement was made at Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade by company chairman Jacques Barthelemy, after a meeting with minister Miguel Jorge.
According to Barthelemy, the smallest of the factories, which received investment of US$ 20 million, should be installed in the state of Ceará, due to its geographic location and to fiscal incentives offered by the state.
“Ceará is an export hub that is geographically very well located and the cost of transport of these machines is crucial in the establishment of prices. That is why there is such interest in the state, which also has other fiscal advantages,” he said.
The site for the other factory, according to the chairman at EBCO Systems, is still under study. According to Barthelemy, both enterprises should generate 300 jobs for highly qualified labor.
A large part of the X-ray equipment for cargo inspection used by the Brazilian customs is produced by EBCO Systems. The company also intends to finance US$ 150 million in more modern machinery.
EBCO opened its doors in 1981, initially commercializing airport equipment. During this period they developed projects in Rio’s international airport Galeão as well as São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport.
In the mid 1990s, the company started selling X-ray systems for the inspection of cargos and luggage. They eventually evolved to manufacture more sophisticated equipment geared to inspect pallets and containers in Brazilian ports.
At the same time they developed equipment adapted for the food and drug industries to detect in a non-invasive way the contents of packages, being able to show the presence of explosives and illegal drugs.