|
 The Navy of Brazil is celebrating the signing of a cooperation agreement between Brazil and France. The Brazilian military believes that transfer of French technology, for the construction of five submarines in Brazil, should benefit the Brazilian industry and generate new jobs, as well as contributing for the country to make true its program of development of marine forces.
Through a press statement, the Brazilian navy said that the agreement forecasts the transfer of technology necessary not just for the military designers, but also for the several companies that are going to participate in the construction of conventional submarines and of the first Brazilian nuclear submarine.
According to the Brazilian Navy, many national products should be used in the submarines. "Up to now, there are already over 30 national companies involved, which should contribute with over 36,000 items, including complex systems," according to the press statement.
Apart from that, a shipyard will be built in Itaguaí, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, to build the nuclear submarine. The site should also serve for the production of conventional submarines and should include a naval base for support of these vessels. According to the government of Rio de Janeiro, the works should be developed by Odebrecht and by Sepetiba Consortium.
Still according to the Brazilian Navy, the entire production process of the submarines and of the shipyards should generate over 2,000 direct jobs and around 6,000 indirect ones.
The agreement for cooperation defines that the French help should be limited, in the long run, to the design and to the non-nuclear part of the first Brazilian nuclear submarine. According to the document, the vessel should use conventional weapons and both the nuclear reactor and the electronic systems associated to it should be developed by Brazil.
Although exempting itself from any responsibility with regard to damaged caused to third parties by the submarine or by its land support installations, the agreement forecasts the establishment of companies or consortia of private rights established by public, private or mixed-capital companies, Brazilian or French, to develop and build a submarine capable of receiving a nuclear reactor, produced according to international safety procedures.
The government of France agreed to authorize the sale, by French companies, of equipment, material and services to the Brazilian Navy or to Brazilian companies. Apart from that, the two countries should also consider the possibility of, totally or partially, exempting goods and services imported or produced for these purposes from direct or indirect taxes.
ABr
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
We sincerely hope that many other European dignitaries follow his example and take prolonged vacations in BA thus generating more tourism revenue for that state.