[comp.society.futures] Brazilian computer industry

gvw@etive.ed.ac.uk (MOBY) (11/24/88)

  = In article <78752@sun.uucp> rburns%master@Sun.COM (Randy Burns) writes:
  = There has been much talk in how the Brazilian 
  = government has made it a national policy to 
  = develop a local computer industry.
  = 
  = I suggest that Brazil develop its computer industry
  = using another means:National Site Licensing. Brazil
  = should license the rights to manufacture a 
  = representative range of computer products, and software
  = from the top vendors of these products. 
  = 
  = This approach could actually enable Brazil to leap to the 
  = forefront of industrial nations. It could also develop a 
  = sophisticated computer market where none now exists. It is 
  = an opportunity which should not be passed up.

This ignores *why* the Brazilians want to develop their own computer industry.
They do not just want computers, they want to build up the scientific/
technical infrastructure required to design new electronic components
and machines indigenously.  Becoming a fabrication site for Northern
designs will not produce a new generation of electronic engineers, nor
the entrepreneurial skills required to deal in the world market.

Greg