Endeavor

tHE CItY's potEntIal Pará's state capital, taking advantage of the potential Amazonian research, can be considered one of the country's top innovation centers. While the local government does not invest much in innovation, the same cannot be said of the private sector: companies only invest less, proportionally, than those of Belo Horizonte. More than that, the companies of Belém are especially impressive because of the way they innovate, by investing in manpower and a better relationship with local universities. About 1 in every 14 em - ployees of the companies is linked to innovation sector (the average is 1 in 20). In addition, according to the IBGE, the 360 companies that innovated there, 102 did so in cooperation with educational institutions — the great - est rate and five times more than the average of the analyzed cities. The strong presence of UFPA, together with key local stakeholders, such as Sebrae Pará, also contributes to the good perception of the population on government support, reaching the third highest rate among the analyzed cities. To reinforce the idea that entrepre - neurship is greatly appreciated there, the field research showed that 35% of population there did at least one entrepreneurship course and almost 70% believe that entrepreneurs are the most responsible for the economic development of the country, the highest rate among the analyzed cities. BELÉM About 30% of the innovative compa- nies in Belém inno- vate in cooperation with universities, the highest rate in the country Another highlight of the city is in the regulatory environment: taxes (proper- ty taxes and the effective taxes applied by the National Simples tax regime) are quite attractive, with an average of al- most R$ 13,000 and 5.7%, respectively. 74

• Cover