Yesterday, the "Kaizen Technical Assistance Network for Global Opportunities" project, known as "Kaizen-Tango" was officially launched in an event held in the Libertador Room of the Palacio San Martín, which was attended by the Argentine Vice-president, Gabriela Michetti; the Deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Raimondi; the Japanese Ambassador, Noriteru Fukushima, and the Undersecretary for Productive Management of the Ministry of Production, Sergio Drucaroff.
The Kaizen-Tango technical cooperation project, which is based on the Japanese philosophy of "continuous improvement", is a 5-year project aimed at improving the productivity and competitiveness of the Argentine industrial sector, transforming Argentina into a regional point of reference in the field of industry through Argentina and Japan's joint cooperation.
During the event, the Argentine Vice-president welcomed the positive impact of the project on job creation and poverty reduction, thanks to its potential for positively affecting the national productive sector. She also remarked that during her visit to Japan in May 2016, "we held a working meeting with the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, at which we thoroughly addressed different aspects of cooperation aimed at strengthening Argentine SMEs. After a little more than a year, as a result of the shared efforts of all the parties involved, the project is being carried out."
"We have an exciting challenge ahead of us: to bring together Argentina's characteristic creativity and Japan's characteristic excellence at productivity," Michetti stated, pointing out that "when we speak of productivity, particularly that of SMEs, we speak of reducing poverty, which is one of our administration's main goals. This will help us create jobs, which is what drives us."
"The President has repeatedly stated that productivity must become the guiding star of the economic policy of our administration. We have to follow that star all of us together, learning from the best," Michetti stated and added: "The Argentine Government is currently developing a policy of productivity partnerships among all sectors of our economy but also with strategic partnerships from abroad. With the Kaizen-Tango project, Japan becomes a new productivity partner for Argentina.
For his part, the Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister stated that "the Kaizen-Tango project is expected to reach a group of 100 Argentine SMEs" and that "it becomes much more relevant if we understand the current level of the ties between Argentina and Japan." Raimondi pointed out that "over the past 20 months, President Macri and Prime Minister Abe met three times", and underscored that "we are at a historical level of mutual engagement, which has been seen by our leaders as strategic."
The activities will be carried out by the Argentine National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI in the Spanish acronym), while the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will coordinate and provide funding for the scheduled technical assistance actions. The project comprises investment in training amounting to more than USD 5 million, which will benefit 100 local SMEs and around 1000 employees of those companies.
For the initial stage of the project, ten companies were selected in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Neuquen, San Juan and Santa Fe, representing the food, automobile, mining, textile and shoe industries. The training plan comprises not only the visit to Argentina of Japanese experts, but also over 50 scholarships for Argentine specialists from the companies participating in the project to obtain training and practice in Japan.
Press release No. 475/17
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