The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology stated today that scientific and technological cooperation is "very important as a bridge for the political cooperation between governments."

"Our interests are increasingly decided at international headquarters," Fausto Brito e Abreu said, defending that "the Ibero-American area should further develop in order to jointly defend our common interests."

Fausto Brito e Abreu spoke at the opening of the Mini Forum promoted by CYTED (Ibero-American Programme of Science and Technology for Development) on the creation of networks for the sharing knowledge and resources, held at the University of the Azores.

This meeting, held under the theme "Sustainable use of resources: a knowledge and growth agenda for peripheral and maritime regions," aims to discuss approaches for the smart use of resources through networking, thus optimising the skills and knowledge of the Ibero-American world. The event is promoted by the Foundation for Science and Technology.

"The Azores, as peripheral and maritime region, defend the need to support scientific cooperation and multilateral technology," Brito e Abreu said, adding that "the countries of the Ibero-American area are key partners for this exchange and the establishment of networks."

The Regional Secretary stressed that the Regional Government "reiterates the potentialities of the Region to cooperate with the Ibero-American area." In this context, the government official "pointed out a number of relevant areas for scientific exchanges with Latin American countries, namely agriculture, livestock and agro-industry, fisheries and the sea, and tourism, i.e., the priority axes of the Research and Innovation Strategy for the Smart Specialisation of the Region - RIS3 Azores.

Environmental monitoring and climatology, volcanology and seismology, renewable energy and space technology are other important areas to be developed under these initiatives.

As for the agro-industry sector, the Regional Secretary stressed the creation of a Science and Technology Park on Terceira, which will contribute to the "improvement of dairy products through biotechnology techniques."

In regard to the fisheries and sea axis, Brito e Abreu stated that the Region wants to stimulate new areas of the "maritime economy," such as blue biotechnology, taking into consideration "the privileged geographical location of the Azores along the Atlantic dorsal crest, where there are diverse ecosystems and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The government official also stressed the importance of aquaculture, which has still "a great potential to be develop in the archipelago. "

"We can make a better use of our clear and deep waters along the coast," the Regional Secretary of the Sea said, adding that the Regional Government has financed a project for the study and mapping of areas with high potential for aquaculture.
 
Fausto Brito e Abreu added that this study "will be concluded within weeks and will be available, free of charge, to our business sector" in order to attract investments to aquaculture production in the Azores.

In this regard, the Regional Secretary for the Sea also mentioned the recent creation of tax incentives "to attract companies to the Azores and investments in aquaculture and marine biotechnology."

The mining of the seabed is another area of the so-called "maritime economy," noted Brito e Abreu.

"There are mineral deposits with high economic value on the bottom of our sea, but we lack the technology that allows us extract them profitably and, in this context, we need to establish international partnerships," said the government official.

However, the Regional Secretary for the Sea stressed that "the sustainability of all these activities is a key issue" for the Region, adding that the Regional Government has every interest that the most intrusive activities, such as mining, may be carried out in a more sustainable way."

Even before moving forward with the mineral prospecting at sea, the Regional Government has been developing international cooperation projects to study the environmental impacts of exploration of resources in the deep sea.

The geothermal station and the "pioneer" wave power station on Pico were the projects highlighted in the area of renewable energies, while in the area of space technologies, Brito e Abreu mentioned the infrastructure installed on Santa Maria, emphasising the "unique location of the Azores."

"We have directed our investments to attract space infrastructures to the Region, providing us with the opportunity to collaborate in international networks and scientific projects that enhance this strategic and unique position of the Azores in the Atlantic," said the government official.

The Mini Forum of CYTED, which ends Tuesday, aims to create networks for the sharing of knowledge and resources, promote collaboration between different institutional and business sectors, and establish new partnerships between various entities in the research space and in the context of Ibero-American cooperation .