Brazil's two top priorities are to reduce dependence on imported energy sources and to bring digital technologies to the vast majority of the country's 180 million people who cannot now afford them.

In energy, the center of the greatest activity is biodiesel, a fuel made from the oil of seeds such as soybeans, castor beans, and cottonseed. Biodiesel could become an attractive, domestically produced alternative to petroleum-based fuels. Brazil has enacted a law requiring diesel oil sold in the country to be 2 percent biodiesel by 2008 and 5 percent biodiesel by 2013. Because the country has huge amounts of land that is unsuited for food crops but that can easily grow oil seeds, "Brazil can become a global biodiesel power," says Maria das Graças Foster, secretary of oil, gas, and renewable energy at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.