The campaigns of three of Brazil’s presidential candidates presented their plans for the ICT industry, focused on software and IT services.
Elections are slated for October.
At an event on Wednesday by Brazilian software companies association Abes in São Paulo, representatives of Ciro Gomes, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Simone Tebet presented proposals and listened to industry demands.
The campaign of President Jair Bolsonaro did not participate.
“As the main challenges for 2023, I believe that the ICT sector in Brazil will continue to experience two major bottlenecks: the challenge of training the workforce and the legal uncertainty for entrepreneurs and companies,” Abes president Paulo Milliet Roque told BNamericas.
He said legal uncertainty will only gradually be resolved, as the country’s institutions mature and the tax reform is approved.
“What we face most urgently, without a doubt, is the issue of training specialized labor, which will not be resolved immediately, although I see an interesting phenomenon, which is the increase in collective awareness that this is a serious topic,” Roque said.
Ciro Gomes
Representative of candidate Ciro Gomes, Antônio Neto defended the repeal of a constitutional amendment to cap public spending to release resources for investments. “Either we change that, or we’re going to continue with the same problems,” Neto said.
According to him, it is key to solve the problem of workforce qualification and face a “professional blackout,” in addition to fundamentally redefine education with a focus on mathematics and Portuguese, among other measures.
“We have today several individuals with degrees in different fields, and turning these people into professionals for the technology area is a solution to the professional blackout,” he said.
Allocating manpower to other professional areas, and in partnership with the private sector, can help tackle labor scarcity, Neto said, without further elaborating.
Neto also said the State needs to “return to being the great [spark] of innovation” and suggested public and private investment conditions should improve to foster startups and attract foreign companies.
Connectivity in the country is “terrible,” and it is necessary to demand quality from providers, so the population has access to adequate internet, Neto said.
LULA
Nelson Fujimoto, representative of candidate Lula, said the country is going through “a very serious moment, with 20mn people who have returned to the point of misery.” According to him, the task of reversing this situation requires more digital inclusion based on three aspects.
They involve building infrastructure where necessary, enabling access to equipment that allows digital and telecom usage, and promoting digital literacy. Fujimoto said with 5G, it becomes necessary to “empower people to make full use of this new technology.”
He did not detail how to implement these proposals. Technology workforce qualification was fundamental, he said, recommending mass training, jobs creation and directing professionals toward demand.
“We have this expertise and we are open to partnerships to put this into practice. We need to invest in technology-based companies, in those that are here, and attract those who are not here to invest,” he said.
Fujimoto defended regulation for locally produced data, without providing details. A personal data protection framework is already in place.
He also said it is necessary to provide greater security to storage and data processing “to provide conditions for having local datacenters.” Yet, Brazil is already a major powerhouse in the sector, with dozens of datacenters in operation.
“We need to invest here in Brazil. We need to regulate the topic of algorithms, invest in training people in the area of artificial intelligence. If we want digital sovereignty, we need to have data here and empowered people here. And in order to stimulate competitiveness, we need to have an industrial policy,” said Fujimoto.
Simone Tebet
Susana Kakuta, representative of Simone Tebet, also referred to the millions who have fallen back into poverty, in addition to high youth unemployment.
Kakuta said that while the ICT sector is “highly elastic” in terms of job creation, it also demands specialized labor.
“We need to promote knowledge in order to insert young people into this market, and retain talent in the country. Education is the key to solving this issue. It is necessary to think about the future of work, narrowing the gap between the knowledge that is required and the knowledge that is offered by educational institutions. Acting in these broad lines means opening a window of opportunity,” said Kakuta.
Referring to ICT and emergent technology, she said this “new sector” cannot develop with “old policies.”
Kakuta avoided details about these new policies, only emphasizing that “full education” needs to be at the heart of the strategy if policies are expected to help employability. According to her, education needs to focus on innovation and Brazil needs to move toward “global competitive equality.”
Kakuta defended both public and private investments and participation in innovation and highlighted that the regulatory priority of a potential Tebet government would be to provide “isonomy” to Brazil. “We need to give conditions to local companies to better interact with global companies, with legal certainty,” she said.
Sector
Abes’ Roque expects the ICT sector to continue to grow above average this year, when compared to other sectors.
“We are undergoing, economically speaking, a phase of ‘blue seas’. However, the issue of lack of specialized labor and the hiring of Brazilian talent by companies abroad to work from home are worrying issues,” Roque told BNamericas.
“I consider it crucial that we prioritize policies that focus on the training of new professionals,” he added.
Abes’ full document with suggestions and proposals for the next Brazilian president can be seen here, in Portuguese.
