The transition team will propose to President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) that he reverse the liquidation process of the National Center for Advanced Electronic Technology (Ceitec), a state-owned company that is the only developer and manufacturer of semiconductors and electronic chips in America Latin. The information was disclosed by the coordinator of the working group on Science, Technology and Innovation of the future government, former minister Sergio Amaral, during a press conference this Thursday afternoon (8), in Brasília. 
Created in 2010, headquartered in Porto Alegre, the company was included by the current government in the Partnerships and Investments Program (PPI), initially to be privatized. Without buyers, the government then decided to proceed with the extinction of the company, but the liquidation process was paralyzed in 2021, under analysis by the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU), still without an outcome of the judgment.
“We are already taking steps with the TCU, so that it interrupts the process, leave it for next year. And also steps so that the next government reverts Ceitec’s liquidation. Fortunately, there is still time to recover the company”, highlighted Amaral.
The former minister emphasized that Ceitec is a strategic company for the development of cutting-edge technology in the country. According to him, the deficit of BRL 20 million that the company had, and which was used as one of the reasons for its extinction, was a very small amount compared to the potential for the development of a productive chain in the sector. In addition, the company’s performance could have been better if public companies had promoted the national market.
“Governments did not buy chips from Ceitec, which they could have done through Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica buying for bank cards, Casa da Moeda buying chips for passports”, he quoted.
Coordinator of the transition work groups, former minister Aloizio Mercadante, who was once the holder of the Science and Technology portfolio, also refuted the argument of the cost of maintaining a company as a justification for interrupting the business.
“It costs to invest in chip production, but ignorance in this sector is much more expensive. This is the option that Brazil has to make. If it wants to dominate, prepare itself, attract investments and enter this elite of countries that produce chips and that are at the forefront of information technology, we are going to have to invest,” he said.
Budget
During the press conference, the Science and Technology WG presented a worrying diagnosis for the sector in the country, especially given the drastic reduction of resources in the area.
“The national system of Science, Technology and Innovation is going through the biggest crisis of the last 24 years. This crisis has several clear indicators. For example, the drastic reduction of discretionary resources [da pasta]from BRL 11.5 billion in 2010 to BRL 2.7 billion [atualmente]?? It is already the deflated value [descontada a inflação]”, quoted Sergio Amaral.
The former minister also mentioned the freezing of the values of research grants from agencies such as Capes and CNPq, and announced that the transition team will propose an increase in the budgets of the two bodies to enable a readjustment of the values, which have not been corrected for 9 years, and also expand the offer of the benefit to scientists and researchers.
