Regional Potentialities
Tourism and Eco-tourism | Psiculture | Agroindustry
Bioindustry | Manaus Industrial Sector | Science and Technology
To promote the development of the Amazon Region avoiding the harming ofits valuable assets: this challenge has being surpassedby the economic viability and environmentally sustainable use of the several, regional potentialities.
Agroindustry, Tourism, Bioindustry and fish breeding activities guarantee productivity and profitability, whilst avoiding the devastation of the Amazon environment.
More than five million square kilometers of natural beauty have made the Amazon an incomparable for tourism, especially, ecotourism, development. The growing supply of tourism infrastructure in the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia and Tocantins - which compose the Brazilian Amazon, has been added to this rich, unique, heterogeneous biodiversity asset.
As this is an activity with a large economic and social impact, which is able to generate employment and income for the Amazonian population, avoiding the enviroment destruction. The ecotourism is one of the priorities of the sustainable development policies applied to the Brazilian Amazon.
Birthplace of thousands of species of flora and fauna and home to gigantic rivers, the Amazon also attracts tourists from all over the world by offering an exotic cuisine, with rich historical and cultural assets and housing a welcoming population.
The Brazilian Amazon has the greatest potential on Earth for the production of freshwater fish. The region is blessed with several factors supporting this activity: weather, lands, an abundance of high quality water and species diversity. These characteristics make fish breeding an economic activity with hight increase potential.
According toun foot and agriculture organization (ONU/FAO) data for 1995, the total worldwide aquaculture (breeding of aquatic organisms) production has been estimated at 27.8 million tonnes with a value of US$ 42.3 billion. Brazil contributed 46,200 thousand tonnes to this total, according to the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA).
The trend is for fish breeding, with an annual growth rate of 10% per year, responsible for 40% of fish consumption by 2010, as a result of the increased global population and of changes in eating habits, according to FAO. In the Amazon Region, the annual fish consumption is 44 kg per capita. The fishing methods used in the region produce only 1/8 of this demand. It is estimated that in Brazil, there is a potential market of around 600,000 tonnes/year. It is estimated that there is an unsatisfied worldwide demand of 28 million tonnes/year.
With its unique diversity of tropical fruits, the Brazilian Amazon has a high potential for the development of agro-industries. Amongst the various types of fruits there are: pineapple, banana, cashew, mango, passion fruit and cupuaçu, whose pulp is used to produce juices and jam, and whose seed is used in the production of excellent quality chocolate.
Also stand out oleaginous plants for industrialization; its production is favoured by the Amazonian environment. The African oil palm deserves a special altention: two types of oil areextracted from its fruit, palm oil from its pulp and palm kerne oil (from the kernel) These have countless uses and applications, both in feeding humans and animals and for non-food purposes. They are used in the food, chemical oil, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
The biodiversity in the Amazon Region has attracted the attention of Brazilian and international industries which use natural products and essences to formulate medicines, vaccines and cosmetics, for large-scale industrialization and commercialization.
Aware of itsstrategic value, the Brazilian government, the scientific community and the private sector have set up the Brazilian Program for Molecular Ecology for Sustainable Use of Amazon Biodiversity (PROBEM).
To sustain this program, the Amazon Region Biotechnology Center (CBA) was set up. This is a complex of laboratories focused on basic and applied research, technology transfer, company incubation and on supplying services such as e product certification, patenting and control of industrial ownership, and the commercialization of products, services and technologies.
Headquartered in Manaus, the CBA has opened up the path to the bioindustry sector, with companies that use local raw materials to prepare products arising from biodiversity.
The Brazilian government goal is to provide the necessary conditions for new companies to be able to invest in the opportunities in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, bio-insecticide, enzymes of biotechnological interest, essential oils, anti-oxidant, natural colorant and flavoring product sectors.
The Manaus Industrial Park (PIM) is the second largest and one of the most important in South America. It is the base which sustains the Manaus Free Trade Zone model.
It makes a decisive contribution bringing international technology to Brazil, and maintains a model producing economic and social development and preserving the environment in the Amazon Region.
There are 450 companies installed in the PIM, with an average annual turnover higher than U$ 13.6 billion, and generates around 90,000 direct jobs and 350,000 indirect jobs in Manaus alone, plus around 20,000 others in the other states covered by Suframa.
One of PIM's most important competitive differentials is the skilled labour force with international standard. It is one of the most productive in several segments and is the productivity leader in the production of television sets, DVDs, and mobile phones amongst other things.
The main companies in the PIM have achieved ISO 9000, 14000 and OHSAS 18000 standard certification. Thus, they have achieved a level of competitiveness which is capable of supplying the internal market, helping Brazil to expand in the international market.
With an annual growth rate of more than 20%, one of the highest in the country, the current trends is for the PIM to export more and more. Suframa´s goal is to equalize the trade balance in 2007, with the perspective of running a surplus thereafter.
At the Manaus Industrial Pole, the investor has at his disposal a land with a simbolic price, with water impounding and treatment, urban transportation system, water supply line, telecomunications, sewerage system and pluvial draining.
The industrial area has 3,9 thousand hectare, considering that the factories occupy less then 1,7 thousand hectare nowadays, being avaliable 2,2 thousand hectare for new business.
The brazilian government, through Suframa and other governamental institutions, accomplishes high investments in infrastructure, for the investor to have all the conditions to settle his enterprise at the Manaus Industrial Pole.
