Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About - 2003-2006

In the last three decades, the world economy dynamics has gone through severe changes concerning models of wealth generation and accumulation. Differently from what happened in the previous accumulation pattern, which was based on tangible resources spread all over the world, in the current one knowledge and information play central roles, and information and communication technology is a key element.

These technologies, which are based on microelectronics, telecommunications and computer science, form the sector of Information and Communication Technology, or ICT, whose structure and measurement, in terms of production, form the basis to this study. In order to achieve this goal, we use data from databases currently produced by IBGE such as the Annual Survey of Industry- Enterprise, the Annual Survey of Trade, and the Annual Survey of Services and their Supplements, as well as reports on the imports and exports reports of industrial ICT goods of the Secretariat of Foreign Trade – Secex, of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, in the period 2003-2006.

This publication brings the methodological criteria applied to guide the definition of the ICT sector by IBGE, items which are in accordance with the recommendations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the economic activities which form them; the main features of surveys used as data sources; and analyses of indicators selected for the delimitation of the sector, including information about number of companies, employed persons, wages, costs, revenue, generation of value added, value of manufacturing, productivity and aspects of foreign trade. The publication also includes a glossary with the relevant concepts. .

The results presented herein provide an overall view of the Information and Communication technology sector in Brazil , its relative importance to the group of industry, trade and services activities, as well as, its contribution to the generation of income and employment, contributing to the debate about the organization and reach of this important economic sector in the country.

These data are also available on the CD-ROM which comes enclosed with the publication and on the IBGE web site.