I have been involved in research on various mineral resources in more than 20 countries around the world. In particular, the geological research period on the South American continent spans more than 30 years.

My relationship with Argentina began in 1997 when I was dispatched to Argentina as a member of the Japanese government agency, which was responsible for extracting promising areas for the development of mineral resources in the country. At that time, the research team was attended by Mr. Daniel Meylan, then Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Mining (later Deputy Minister of Energy and Mining).

Daniel Meylan came to Japan with Vice President Gabriela Michetti to participate in the Japan-Asia Public-Private Economic Forum in May 2016, two years before the 120th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-Asia Friendship Commerce and Navigation Treaty. At that time, I got acquainted with Mr. Toru Tanaka, the current CEO of Octolink. After the forum, several meetings were held with high-ranking government officials and influential people in the political and business world, but they did not lead to concrete movements at the private level.

I believe that it is necessary to create and implement a concrete industrial promotion plan that everyone is excited about for the economic recovery of Argentina, and as a first action, Mr. Daniel Meylan relied on the business card exchanged 20 years ago. I visited Argentina again in March 2017 to meet. Therefore, we discussed the concept of the Argentine specialty import project that we are currently implementing.
 
The next action was to travel to Argentina again in July 2018 with Octolink CEO Toru Tanaka, who was acquainted with Mr. Daniel Meylan and loved Argentina and sympathized with him. I visited various organizations such as JETRO and the Argentine Investment Agency and emphasized the necessity of an industrial promotion plan.

After returning to Japan, we explained the situation in Argentina to government agencies such as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and major companies, and asked for assistance in the economic recovery of Argentina, and we are still active.