By Edmundo Fujita
Today, Brazil and South Korea are facing a unique window of opportunity where challenges concerning both countries offer mutual synergistic momentum to each other.
Current global instabilities in politics, economy, society, environment, energy, food, health and other fields are calling for fundamental changes in the paradigms of existing relationship among nations.
Geopolitical alignments, socioeconomic models, relations between government and civil society, demographic and environmental issues are all undergoing major change that requires a new system of values to guide our actions.
Some of the challenges right in front of us are the recovery of world’s economy, achievement of sustainable development, efficient use of energy through renewal sources, mitigation of climate change, creation of employment and food security in a way equitable to all humankind.
In this regard, two countries such as Brazil and South Korea are endowed with very favorable conditions for devising a unique partnership which serves not only both nations’ interests but also stimulates new projections of “soft power” to inspire a wider circle of participants.
Apparently antipodes in almost all dimensions, in reality, the diversity of our respective potentialities facilitates a creative synthesis of results. Brazil is a large country in terms of territory and population while Korea is a nation with a homogeneous culture and highly educated population.
Brazil is the world’s 7th largest economy with $2-trillion GDP and Korea is the 13th largest economy with $1-trillion GDP. The latter follows an export-oriented model whereas the former relies predominantly on developing its internal market.
Korea is a knowledge economy based on advanced technologies while Brazil is becoming a dynamic knowledge economy based on green and bio-diverse resources.
In other words, together they may make possible a synergistic combination of technologies and resources that could yield new links between enterprises and research institutes of both countries, improve quality of life and employment, create new products that are more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Ultimately, they could become building blocks of a new model of “green economy” that would deliver “win-win” results to all sides concerned.
Brazil’s major objective is to improve the level of social and economic development of our large population through a fair distribution of income and sustainable pace of growth, employment and quality of life.
Its main challenge is to achieve these results through a balanced combination of bio-diverse resources, technological innovation and non-predatory business practices in such a way to reduce internal imbalances and expand benefits to an ever growing complex society.
For Korea, with a resources scarce territory, the challenge is to improve its international competitiveness in order to become one of the top world-class economies while identifying new opportunities for stable and long term reliable partnerships.
For both countries, such challenges lead to a convergence of perspectives in terms of markets, resources and technologies. Through a well identified and focused sharing of their respective experiences, new qualitative improvements and breakthroughs could be reached for the benefit of each other’s citizens.
Mutually beneficial exchange of experiences and knowledge between the two countries could form new heuristic networking which could give solid support to dynamic joint ventures between enterprises and institutions. And the results of such cooperation could benefit not only business and consumers of their respective countries but also third economies.
The multidimensional possibilities could nurture and encourage small and medium enterprises, as well as large corporations of both countries with appropriate support from governmental agencies, such as financial mechanisms and the facilitation of institutional regulations favorable to active innovations.
As two countries among the 20 most important global economies, this kind of synergistic partnership is perfectly possible, thanks to current solid foundations of Korea and Brazil, such as fully fledged stable democracies, transparency and accountability of institutions, macroeconomic stability a high level of scientific production, quality human resources and complementary hardware and software skills in many critical fields.
For example, there is a forthcoming disposition from both sides in sharing researches, joint development and commercialization in areas such as semiconductors, information technology, bio-pharmaceutics, photovoltaic cells, smart grids, modernization of infrastructures and logistics in railroads, ports, transport and others.
The resulting projects could lead to optimal green bi-national clusters, endowed with economic, social and environmental attractiveness with multiplying effects.
Concrete examples of these possibilities are the ongoing collaboration projects between Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and Rural Development Administration (RDA) in agriculture and biotechnology; Institute Pasteur Korea, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in new discoveries for neglected diseases; KAIST-ITTP in the exchange of researchers; Unisinos, Sogang and SKKU in semiconductors, INATEL and ETRI in cognitive radio technologies for broadband diffusion and many others.
The Brazilian Embassy in Korea has been encouraging the nurturing of “2+2 models” of bilateral cooperative projects, where enterprises as well as research and development institutions on the Korean side could establish joint projects with equivalent synergistic enterprises and research institutions on the Brazilian side.
Some seminal initiatives are already taking place, with enthusiasm and a pioneering spirit. In the current ever-changing international scenario, forecasting the most promising trends and opportunities becomes a vital condition for growth.
The combination of the right partners at the right time is the essence to achieve strategic qualitative jumps in the progress of nations. South Korea and Brazil already have convergent elements for green growth and sustainable development. All they need now is to pass into action to achieve successful concrete results in a synergistic partnership.
Edmundo Fujita is Brazil’s ambassador to South Korea. He can be reached at braseul@kornet.net.