The Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) received, on Monday (23/1), a diplomatic mission from the Philippines, composed of representatives of the Philippine government, to give progress to the technical cooperation partnership with the University, through the Center for Agrarian Sciences (CCA).

The team, composed of representatives of the sugar-energy sector of the Government of the Philippines and Itamaraty, in the person of Antonio Divino Junqueira, Manager of the General Coordination Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East of ABC/MRE, was received by the Rector, Ana Beatriz de Oliveira, for the welcome reception to Brazil. "It is a source of great pride for UFSCar to be a reference for this important project and that it will contribute to the technological development of the Philippines. I'm sure it will be a very successful cooperation, with which we will also learn a lot", said the Rector.

The visit is part of the activities of the extension project "Technical cooperation for the Government of the Philippines for the ethanol and biofuels production chain", which has professor Octavio Antônio Valsechi as technical coordinator. The professor explains that UFSCar is a consultant to the United Nations (UN) for the sugar chain, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), since 2000, working on government cooperation agreements for Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and several countries in Africa, in addition to Sri Lanka and India, which has taken the name of the University beyond national borders.

"From this visit, we will show our knowledge and technologies so that we can, from the reality of the country, contribute to the increase in ethanol production in the Philippines. For this, in addition to presenting the University and the technologies developed by it in the sector, we will visit mills and companies in the reference sugar and alcohol sector, to contribute with excellence in the development of this project", explains Valsechi.

At campus Araras, more precisely in cca, the entourage has known the largest and most important program for the development of sugarcane varieties in the world, in addition to the activities and laboratories related to the sugar-energy sector.

Emilio Bernardino Lin Yulo, district representative of the Republic of the Philippines, said the expectation with the partnership is that they will be able to increase ethanol production in their country, based on the cutting-edge techniques and technologies that make Brazil a benchmark in this area.

"We have the same type of soil and we believe that we have much to gain from this technical cooperation. By bringing this technology to the Philippines, we expect the 90,000 sugarcane producers to be able to improve their production and, consequently, their businesses, impacting a large part of the rural population," he said.

Source: RPA news