INRIA: forum on ICT in Brazil

INRIA (Paris) organized three days about ICT in Brazil. being in Paris today, I attended the afternoon session, with outstanding presentations from D.Petit & L. Marques (SOftex). Brazil spent $11.4 billion in 2005. 10% of the population is connected to the internet, with an objective of 40% in 2015. According to D. Petit, Brazil's bank system is the most advanced in the world. Due to the hyper-inflation that prevailed till 1994, the banks IT system got developped to take into account frequent and drastic modifications of the regulations and processes. The IT teams also acquired a culture of high flexibility and reactivity. e-government is a reality, as electronic ballots are used for most elections (president, governors, etc). This capacity helps ensure proper democracy process in a country where a part of the population lives in very remote areas. 97% of individuals fill their income tax declaration online, while 100% of companies do it online. Brazil counts over 200,000 It professionals. The average cost of a work hour is about $25-30, to be compared to a reference of $100/h in the US. The open source community is wide and vibrant. Brazil counts about 5,400 IT vendors (hardware, software, services).