Chamber of Commerce signs International Agreement between Brazil and Florida

SAO PAULO - June 23, 2014 - PRLog -- The Brazil-Florida Chamber of Commerce (BFCC), as well as its affiliate organization, the Florida International Business School (FIBS) have entered into two agreements recently. Both of which are designed to increase the exchange of aerospace concepts and technology between Brazil and the United States.

The first of these was opened in an effort to increase cooperation between U.S. and Brazilian aerospace organizations. The second is tied more to the Florida International Business School and is designed to enable greater technology transfer between the two nations.

"We know the entrepreneurial spirit and innate ability to learn and adequacy of Brazilian professionals, opening great opportunities for innovation for Brazilian American companies," said the Business school‘s CEO Mark Bonfa.

With the International Cooperation Agreement that the BFCC has signed with the INPE (the Brazilian space agency – that nation’s equivalent of NASA) the Aerospace agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil -greater collaborative efforts will be sought out and existing ones will be strengthened.

Key members of both the Brazil-Florida Chamber of Commerce (BFCC) and the Florida International Business School (FIBS) were at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) located in São José dos Campos (SP) on Wednesday June 11, to sign the letter of intent which is aimed at initiating broader cooperation between the country of Brazil and the State of Florida. These included Jefferson Michaelis, the president of the BFCC's well as Bonfa. All of the parties involved confirmed that this agreement is viewed as a major step forward.

“My vision of this is that we are reconnecting both nations, once again in the field of cooperation for more projects relating to the aerospace industry,” said BFCC President Jefferson Michaelis. “That’s actually going on right now. There is a lot of equipment that the Brazilian space agency is looking to buy from the United States. So, hopefully with this memorandum that we signed we’re going to be directing the companies in Florida what INPE is looking to acquire from the United States.”

The leaders of each of these groups came together in an effort to better define potential opportunities for them to pool their efforts and resources. Specific areas of interest include educational and technical initiatives.

It is hoped that this agreement will allow professionals from both the United States and Brazil to visit the partner’s country to see how business is conducted there and then take those lessons back home. This also could serve to increase trade between the United States and Brazil in terms of aerospace technology development.

As noted, the primary focus of these efforts will be in aerospace-related fields which include launch vehicle processing, satellite development and manufacture and other related areas.

BFCC met with INPE in October of last year during a trade mission to Brazil. At that meeting, Space Florida’s President, Frank DiBello, accompanied BFCC’s President J.Michaelis. They spoke with representatives from INPE, including the organization’s Director, Leonel Perondi. The meeting was also attended by scientists and other experts who worked to map out other possible collaborative ventures.

As Michaelis noted, INPE has expressed interest in purchasing technology from firms that are based out of the United States. As it turns out, this is a key element of the second agreement that BFCC and FIBS entered into.

Through this international agreement, the two organizations will begin a new phase of development with the Brazilian Technology Park. This arrangement will serve to engender a free flow of aerospace technology between the United States and Brazil. This second agreement, was signed between Michaelis and the general director of Technology Park, Horacio Forjaz. The core directive of this agreement is to empower Brazilian firms to undertake the exchange of professionals, provide leadership training and collaboration work with NASA.

“As a result of this agreement, entrepreneurs, engineers, executives and technologists from Brazil and the United States will be able to utilize the chamber of commerce to develop innovative projects, participate in technical missions, Business conferences, hands on trainings, and in the future for Brazilian companies that decides to expand operations in Florida.  BFCC will assist them to have access to Tech Transfer projects that are being developed in collaboration with NASA,” Michaelis said.