Science, development and national sovereignty

Valdeck Carneiro *

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, to anticipate the repercussions of the cyclical crisis of international capitalism (the mortgage crisis), the Chinese government formally announced the main countercyclical measures to be adopted to maintain as much GDP growth as possible, which were, in that country, It was an extraordinary performance since the beginning of that decade. Thus, the Prime Minister himself went to the National People’s Congress to announce these measures. Among them, increasing investments in science, technological development and innovation, that is, as a way to confront the economic crisis, China decided not to become a partner in the crisis, following the guidelines of adjustment and austerity, but rather bet on it. Expand the state’s investment in strategic areas with a focus on science.

Recently, in order to overcome the health and economic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the American and French governments have also adopted a similar position, increasing the share of public investment in scientific and technological development.

Now, these examples, which point to different realities, at different historical times, convey a clear message about the links between science, development and sovereignty. Therefore, as one of my main theses in Parliament, I insisted that the main competitive advantage of the state of Rio de Janeiro is not the oil reserves located here, which make us the largest oil producer in Brazil: 83% of the citizens. Oil and gas production comes from Rio de Janeiro! This is clearly a very important source, although it has been seriously mitigated, at present, by the capitulation and anti-patriotic policy of the Bolsonaro government in the Petrobras and pre-Salt administration.

In fact, Petrobras has significantly reduced its role in oil refining (Comperj has been abandoned and Reduc refining is less than a third of its installed capacity); sale of several subsidiaries, including fertilizer factories (today we import 90% of all fertilizers used in national agriculture); The price of fuel in dollars; He reinjects about 60% of the gas extracted into the oil drilling activity into wells; Putting a shovel into the national content policy for the marine sector; I decided to prioritize the payment of short-term dividends to international shareholders. In short, it is a policy that has nothing to do with the call of Petrobras, since its founding in 1953, of becoming a vector of sovereign national development.

In any case, what I want to stress is that even if this disastrous agenda were not in place, oil would not remain the biggest competitive advantage of RJ. Not only for being a fossil fuel, but also for being a limited wealth, for being a product affected by the fluctuations of the international market for goods, however, for being subject to catastrophic political and administrative deviations, like that in which we live in the current period of Brazilian life.

Therefore, I affirm that the great wealth, primary asset, and enduring and insurmountable competitive advantage of the Royal Jordanian lies in the proven intelligence in the territory of Rio de Janeiro. Our state hosts the largest group of training and research institutions in all of Brazil: four federal universities (UFRJ, UFF, UFRRJ and UNIRIO), two state universities (UERJ and UENF), two institutes of the Federal Professional, Scientific and Technological Network (IFRJ and IFF), CEFET and Colégio Pedro II, all of which are “multicampi” institutions, meaning that they not only operate in their headquarters, but also radiate education, research and extension in different areas of RJ. In addition, they are established and recognized institutions for their academic excellence in many areas of knowledge. As if all this were not enough, we also have many other training and science institutions of the highest level, which conduct super-specialized research and have become international references, such as FIOCRUZ, IMPA, LNCC, CBPF, National Museum and others. Federal and state. We still have some private sector institutions, which are also distinguished by their high level of science and research, as is the case with PUC-Rio, a very important government research funding agency (FAPERJ).

In light of this, given the successful international experiences and taking into account this exceptional advantage available to Royal Jordanian, it is incomprehensible that the state governments have paid little or no attention to this valuable peculiarity in Rio de Janeiro. On the contrary, we come to the face of proposals to reduce the constitutional revenues of FAPERJ, an attempt to interfere in the process of selecting presidents of public universities, proposals to create a CPI and even to privatize the UERJ! Fortunately, this nonsense did not work.

Recently, State Law No. 9.809/22 (designated in honor of Louise Bengueli Rosa Act) entered my writing (jointly with Representative Gustavo Tutoka), which establishes the state system for science, technology and innovation in the Royal Jordanian imposition. After many rounds of discussion, the final text (although with some uses of veto by the ruler) has the potential to give a systematic view of this agenda in the Royal Jordanian, and to introduce strategic tools into state legislation, such as: the State Council for the Sector, which is treated as the state ; State strategy for science, technology and innovation; Agenda for general applications in science, technology and innovation; strengthening of the State Fund for Technological Development (FATEC); A guide to cooperation between government, scientific institutions, research and development sectors in industries and civil society, with research and technological development and innovation as pivotal hubs.

In the current Brazilian situation, where the federal government practices scientific denial at a cost of about 700,000 people, drastically reduces the science budget and its institutions, reduces the value of exceptional national scientific production (mostly from public institutions), violates the constitutional principle of university autonomy and qualifies health social, cultural and scientific disparities Indispensable to university environments as a “chaos,” it is imperative that a state like RJ prioritizes science. For scientific, social, cultural, environmental, economic and geopolitical reasons. Finally, in appreciation of civilization at the expense of barbarism.

* Valdeck Carneiro Professor at the UFF and State Representative (PSB-RJ)