A visit to the commercial office of the Basque Foreign Network in Tokyo has marked the starting point of an extensive agenda of meetings with economic actors and institutions to build relations between Japan, Taiwan and the Basque Country; with the aim of attracting possible investments.
“We are convinced that strengthening relations with Japan and Taiwan is essential for them to be aware of the Basque Country’s top-level capabilities in technology and industry”, said Jauregi.
The Basque Minister of Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability, Mikel Jauregi, was leading an institutional and business mission of the Basque Government to Japan and Taiwan. Both countries, which are part of the Asia-Pacific region, are of particular interest to the Basque Country and its trade relations, as this area is classified as the world region with the greatest future economic growth in most of the Basque Country’s strategic sectors (energy, renewables, electricity grids, machine tools and telecommunications).
Jauregi’s trip began with a visit to the Basque Government’s commercial office in Tokyo, where he was received by its director, Moe Kato. There he was able to see first-hand the important work carried out by the office to identify contacts that contribute to the development of business and the identification of opportunities for Basque companies established in Japan or seeking to set up in the country, as well as those Japanese companies with interests in the Basque Country.
The Minister was also invited to the assembly of the Taiwan Global Cherry Friendship Social Foundation, a foundation made up of businesspeople with the aim of strengthening ties between Taiwan and Japan. Representatives of this organisation visited the Basque Country a fortnight ago to gain first-hand knowledge of its technological and industrial capabilities, with a view to analysing the possibility of making future investments, and were received by the Lehendakari Imanol Pradales. Within the framework of the assembly of the Sakura Foundation, Jauregi received an acknowledgement to the Lehendakari from Mrs. Akie Abe, widow of the Prime Minister of Japan between 2012 and 2020, Shinzo Abe. Mrs. Abe, accompanied by Mr. Frank Chang-ting Hsieh, chief advisor to the President of Taiwan, will visit the Basque Country in December to carry out a ceremonial planting of a cherry tree as a sign of brotherhood between the Basque Country, Japan and Taiwan.
To close his agenda, Mikel Jauregi attended the inauguration of the new office of the Basque company Talde Group in Japan with its president, Jose Mari Zalbidegoitia. Talde, a pioneering business group in private capital management in Spain, has a solid and diversified portfolio of investee and financed companies, made up of 22 business groups and with a presence in various sectors, whose sales exceed 1,000 million euros in more than 40 countries and have more than 2,000 employees. As part of this international growth strategy, the new office in Japan reaffirms this commitment. In addition, last week it became known that Kutxabank has acquired 70% of Talde, in order to have more sophisticated instruments to promote the development of the financial sector in the Basque Country.