The Diplomat
Some twenty Basque companies regularly export their products and services to Japan with a turnover of close to 200 million euros per year, as revealed by the Government of the Basque Country on the occasion of a meeting with some of the main public and private Japanese companies with hydrogen as main topic.
The event was organized in mid-July in Bilbao by the Basque Agency for the Internationalization of the SPRI Group-Basque Trade & Investment of the Basque Government in collaboration with the Japanese Embassy in Spain and within the framework of the Japan-Euskadi year.
The objective of this “active dialogue” was, on the one hand, to inform the main Japanese public and private companies in the energy sector of Basque projects in the field of hydrogen, such as the Euskadi Hydrogen Strategy, the BH2C Hydrogen Corridor, the Electrolyser Prototype and the Hydrogen capacities throughout the Value Chain, and, on the other, inform Basque companies, entities and institutions about the activities, products and projects of the main Japanese firms.
“Following the recent opening of the new Basque office in Tokyo last year, the development of mixed work and cooperation meetings between institutions and companies has intensified notably,” declared the SPRI Group in a press release and was reported by the Spain Council Foundation -Japan. In this context, Japan represents “an important area of opportunity” for Basque companies, especially in sectors of great relevance for the Basque Country such as the automotive industry, consumer electronics, renewable energy or machinery, mainly.
Of the nearly twenty Basque companies that regularly export to Japan, seven have production infrastructure, while the rest maintain commercial activity established in person in the Asian country. Automotive and advanced manufacturing technologies are his main areas of work.