The impression that São Paulo State’s economy is becoming less important is being contradicted by the results of a study headed by Aurílio Caiado, a professor at the University of Sorocaba (Uniso). Funded by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico/CNPq Research Funding Agency, the research study Performance Econômica das Regiões Brasileiras/Perb compares data related to innovation in companies located in the main states of Brazil. In the case of São Paulo, the study distinguishes what is happening in this respect in the state capital, the São Paulo Metropolitan Region and in the state. Results show that the exit of industries has been restricted to the state capital and the surrounding regions. In 1985, the state capital city accounted for 15% of the country’s entire transformation industry; in 2005, this figure had dropped to 6.1%. In the case of the Metropolitan Region, except for the state capital city, this index dropped from 14.2% to 10.5%. But the performance of other regions in the state went up from 22.7% of the country’s national industry transformation in 1985 to 27.2% in 2005.
The research study shows that the fact that many industries moved out of the capital city is not a symbol of decadence, because the city is nowadays the main Brazilian center of companies investing in innovation, whose products have higher a aggregate value. “Brazil has a peculiar characteristic: the third industrial revolution is happening in the same place as the second revolution occurred”, says Caiado. “São Paulo City is losing to traditional, labor-intensive or raw material-intensive industries that use mature technology; on the other hand, it is attracting technology-intensive industries”. Based on an unpublished analysis of the data produced by the Pesquisa de Inovação Tecnológica/Pintec Technological Innovation Research Study conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics/IBGE on the group of companies that implemented innovation in the period from 2003 and 2005, Caiado´s team verified that 6.32% of the industrial companies located in the capital city launched new products for the domestic market, in comparison to 4.79% of the companies in the state and 3.25% of the national average. São Paulo City ranks second behind the front-runner, Manaus, which accounted for 7.96%, thanks to the Manaus Free Trade Zone.
The innovative companies based in the capital city account for the highest percentage figures in terms of in-company, highly complex research and development activities (28%, in comparison to the state average of 23.5% and to the national average of 16.6%). Of the 47,628 Brazilians involved in R&D in companies in 2005, 26,517 live in the State of São Paulo and 8,865 live in the capital city.
According to Caiado, the State of São Paulo is expected to maintain its leading position as Brazil’s main innovation center. Statistical series show that the concentration of researchers hired by industrial companies has been growing since 2000. In that year, 57.8% of the people with university degrees involved in R&D activities of innovative companies were in São Paulo. In 2005, this percentage figure had grown to 61.1% of the total number in Brazil. According to the researcher, the data produced by the Perb suggests that São Paulo´s industrial policy should follow its own path, unlike the rest of the country, in order to reinforce the link between research and the productive sector and encourage the creation of technology companies. “It is a mistake to imagine that São Paulo should fight for every kind of company. The state has nothing to gain from taking part in a tax war”, he states.
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