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President Lula passed Law No. 14.577, which opens an additional credit of R$4.18 billion for the 2023 budget of the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT), in favor of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The law was passed on Thursday (11) and it fully restores the resources of FNDCT, which now has R$9.96 billion for investments in structuring projects in strategic areas.

For the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, the reconfiguration of the FNDCT is an achievement of scientific research, technological development and innovation generation. This sanction represents the commitment of President Lula’s government to science as a pillar of development. The minister said that FNDCT is the largest source of funding for Brazilian science and an essential tool for the country’s development.

The complete reconfiguration of the fund took place after the government sent to the National Congress the bill that opened an additional credit of R$4.18 billion to the fund’s budget. The project was approved by the parliamentarians, and now, the President of the Republic has approved it.

The total volume of the fund’s resources will be divided between payable operations and non-repayable operations.

Finep, a public company associated with MCTI, will operate the resources, based on guidelines to be determined by the FNDCT Board of Directors.

According to the minister, the resources will be invested in structuring projects in the areas of re-industrialization, health, energy transition and digital transformation that have an impact on national development.

FNDCT is one of the main means of financing projects aimed at technological development and production of scientific knowledge. The reconfiguration of its resources is an essential step for the advancement and development of Brazilian science.

In the past 24 years, President Lula has ratified the law that reduces the cost of FNDCT loans. By setting the reference rate as an indicator of Finep’s operations with FNDCT resources, Law 14554 reduced the interest on loans to 2% per annum.

Minister Luciana Santos expected the measure to lead to a strong increase in the demand for credit. It recalls that the volume of funds released by Finep in credit operations as of April 14 exceeded R$ 1.1 billion – more than double the amount disbursed in the same period of 2022. “With the change to TR, demand should increase even more,” said the minister.