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Brazil from the Inside
Fabiano Cid
The view of a localization expert on the economy and politics of his own country
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) recently applied a new
methodology to calculate the country’s GDP revealing that the Brazilian economy is
US$102 billion bigger than formerly thought. According to the consulting firm Austin Rating,
the 11% increase found through the new calculation positions Brazil back among the 10th
largest economies in the world, ahead of India, Australia, The Netherlands and South Korea.
In 2005 alone, the Brazilian GDP reached US$882 billion. Does this mean that Brazil will
manage to reach a detached position among the world leading exporters of IT services and
products? How can language industry companies and professionals benefit from this trend?
What can we do to help fulfill Brazilian’s long-awaited dream to become the “country of the
future?” These are a few questions that I will address in this article.
Last March, two important conferences on the above theme took place in São Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro. While Brazil Outsourcing was an initiative launched by Flavio Grynszpan,
Coordinator of the Brazilian Chapter of the International Association of Outsourcing
Professionals (IAOP), the Rio International Software and Services Outsourcing Conference
was organized by BRASSCOM, the Brazilian Association of Software & Service Export
Companies. In both events, the list of speakers included Brazilian and foreign executives,
scholars and government representatives who discussed the ways and means to place Brazil
in a more central position when it comes to IT outsourcing.
In 2006, Brazilian software market transactions totaled US$9.09 billion in IT systems and
related services, representing a 22.6% increase over the previous year’s figures. Of the
total amount, US$3.26 billion refer to software sales, which account for 1.3% of the
worldwide transactions and 43% of those in L