During a meeting between President Dilma Rousseff and the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, on Thursday (June 21), at Rio+20, the Brazilian and Chinese governments raised their partnership to a "globally strategic" level. They signed agreements as part of the 2012-2021 Ten Year Cooperation Plan in science, technology, innovation, space, energy, mining, infrastructure, transport, industry, financial, trade, culture, education, and exchanges between their civil societies.

The two leaders pledged that the emphasis of the plan is directly linked to cooperation in the fields of science, technology and innovation, considered key to promoting the welfare of their peoples and the proper international recognition of both countries in the knowledge economy. The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Marco Antonio Raupp, took part in the signing.

The new joint initiatives include segments such as nanoscience and nanotechnology, meteorology, the environment, climate change, bamboo technology, clean energy, renewable energy and the green economy, biotechnology and agricultural technologies, information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the promotion of dialogue between technology parks, with a view to forming associations between small and medium-sized technology-based companies in both countries.

The signing of the agreements creates virtual joint Brazil-China Meteorological Satellites and Biotechnology centers, which could include joint research activities in areas such as meteorological information, natural disaster warnings, biomedicine, bioinformatics and biomaterials.

Satellites

At the meeting, the authorities confirmed the decision to expand joint efforts aimed at launching CBers-03 Sino-Brazilian earth resource satellites in 2012 and CBers-04 in 2014, and they agreed on their interest in encouraging joint work on the international distribution of data collected by those satellites.

This collaboration extends to Science without Borders Program (SwB). Initially, about 200 scholarships for Brazilian students and researchers will be offered by the Chinese government, paying their tuition and registration fees. The agreement further provides that Brazilian universities offer classes in Mandarin, and the Chinese offer classes in Portuguese.

See the agreements signed and the joint statement issued by the two countries.

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Text: Ricardo Abel - Press Office, MCTI