Brazil is seeking advanced technological ties with Japan, including construction of a microchip plant in Latin America's largest country, in return for possible adoption of the Japanese terrestrial digital TV standard, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said on April 12.
Amorim is in Tokyo this week with Communications Minister Helio Costa and Luiz Fernando Furlan, trade and development minister, to discuss the matter with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other top Japanese politicians.
Government sources in Brazil said last month Brazilian ministers had chosen the Japanese digital TV standard and are awaiting President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's approval.
But the Cabinet Chief's office said no decision had been made yet by the government. Brazil is choosing between the European, US and Japanese standards for digital television.
Amorim said there are three important conditions for adopting any digital TV standard.
The first is that the system is open so that it can incorporate Brazilian innovations. The second is that Brazil has participation in governance of the system.
"We are also looking for some offsets in terms of industrial production and transfer of technology, and most important one of them relates to the question of creating a plant of semiconductors in Brazil," Amorim told a news conference.
The Brazilian sources have said the announcement of the Japanese win would probably coincide with a similar decision by neighbouring Argentina.
If other Latin American countries followed suit, Brazil could soon export digital TV equipment to the region.
In Brazil, the country's powerful media have been actively defending the adoption of the Japanese standard, which gives broadcasters additional channels.
Some sector experts in Brazil said the European standard could be cheaper and better for Brazil, but the government cannot risk upsetting the media in the year of presidential elections.