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Atech Tecnologias Críticas, a Brazilian technology company, has just signed a contract to develop aerial traffic control systems in Venezuela. The deal, for the value of US$ 1.5 million, was signed with the neighboring country's National Institute of Civil Aviation this month.
This is the second contract the company signs with the Venezuelans in three months. In October, Atech was chosen by the local government to manage the integration of a network of meteorological radars and sensors in the country.
The company is responsible for 90% of the aerial traffic control systems in Brazil and started exporting technology around three years ago. The company first clients on the foreign market were the United States and Mexico, where there are three Atech aerial traffic management systems in operation.
At the beginning of this year, the company also started selling to the Japanese. According to the company marketing director, Zareh Balekjan, a contract was signed for the development of software for an industry in Japan, whose name cannot be announced.
Balekjan stated that international sales still answer to a small share of the company revenues, but they helped increase company revenues in 2004. Atech grew from revenues of US$ 60 million in 2003 to a forecasted US$ 100 million in 2004, a 66% increase.
Atech was the company responsible for integrating the entire System for the Vigilance of the Amazon (Sivam), implemented in 2000 by the Brazilian federal government to collect figures about the Amazon forest.
Through the new contract signed with Venezuela, Atech is going to help modernize the Maiquetia Aerial Control Centre (ACC), which controls aerial traffic in the north of Venezuela, where the largest movement of civil aircraft is concentrated.
The company is going to supply software for aerial control of civil aviation, install the system and integrate it to the existing system, as well as train operators to provide technical service. Balekjan believes that the system will be operational in one year.
Business with the neighboring country began after the Venezuelans visited the country, last year, and saw the Atech services and products in operation. Atech also travelled to Venezuela to offer its products and services.
According to Balekjan, closer ties between the Brazilian and Venezuelan government also collaborated to the closing of the deals. "And we are making an effort to export technology. We are trying to increase the participation of exports in our revenues," he said.
The previous contract signed with Venezuela, in October, was for US$ 1 million. The contract is going to take around one year. Atech is going to organize an interface between sensors and radars at an operations center in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
This is as part of a program called Venehmet, in which, apart from improving weather forecasts, the government plans to administer the water resources in the country, monitoring the flow of rivers and the behaviour of lakes.
The company's marketing director states that Atech is also interested in selling to the Arab countries, but they have not yet done any business with the region.
A marketing plan to enter the Middle Eastern and North African market, however, has already been put into practice. "But it is not for the short term," he explained.
National Technology
Atech is a Brazilian company with 100% national capital. The company is based in the city of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, and also has units in Manaus and Brasília, respectively in the North and Midwest, as well as a subsidiary, AmazonTech, in the United States.
The company was opened in 1997 so as to participate in the implementation of the Sivam. Nowadays, however, the company also operates on other fronts, such as the development of aerial control for airports, technological systems for the sectors of public safety and health.
Atech has also created Infopol, a program that integrates the databases of police forces, hospitals, fire departments, and other institutions so as to help fight crime.
The company also developed a computerized system to identify fingerprints, and a unique health system for cities, through which a doctor in the southern zone of the city, for example, can have access to the medical report of a patient who was previously treated in the northern zone.
Contact
Atech
(+55 11) 3040-7314
www.atech.br
zareh@atech.br
ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency
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