After executives from the tech giant came forward to give their speech and praise the current administration, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Omar Paganini gave his speech, in which he repeated —as if it were already a mantra— his desire for Uruguay to become a “regional innovation hub”.
For his part, Lacalle Pou decided not to make statements to those present or to the press, but he did get ready to cut the laboratory’s inaugural ribbon.
A few meters separate the entrepreneur’s club, where the speeches were made, from the main entrance of Los Robles, the building in which it is located Microsoft and the study center harvard.
Ines Guimaraens
Jun Yamasaki talking with Lacalle; behind is Guzmán Acosta y Lara, Ruperto Long and Omar Paganini.
Government authorities, company executives, businessmen and other guests —among whom was the nationalist pre-candidate Laura Raffo—followed the president who would cut the inaugural ribbon in a few minutes.
However, Lacalle deviated from the planned path and several people around him explained that the protocol indicated otherwise. “We have a last-minute meeting,” he said, walking into other offices unexpectedly. In the place he took some selfies with the officials.
Later, he left those facilities and went —now yes— to the new Microsoft laboratory, where asked for scissors to cut the inaugural ribbon. Then, he went to see the facilities while he spoke with the authorities of the organization and responded to the requests of those who came looking for selfies.
Ines Guimaraens
President Lacalle asking for scissors to cut the inaugural ribbon.
In a moment, stopped a local worker who was with his thermos and mate, and laughing He told him: “That cannot be missing in any Uruguayan office.” The recipient of hers responded with another smile.
Among those present, Raffo —who did part of his career at Microsoft— met a former classmate, introduced himself with several people who attended the opening and he “sneaked” into a photo that included Lacalle Pouthe general manager of the South Andean Region of Microsoft, Jaime Galviz and other officials. “I join, so we put a woman,” said Raffo while he was located within the plane of the photo.
Ines Guimaraens
President Lacalle together with Raffo and Microsoft executives.
Lacalle also spoke with the global leader of the Microsoft AI Co-Innovation Labs, Jun Yamasaki. “I don’t know what to call it,” he said. those present with laughter when pronouncing the first name of the young japanese executive The talk in English focused on the intentions of collaboration between Microsoft and Uruguay. The technology company hopes to create a center at LATU that brings together academia, businessmen and organizations to boost the local ecosystem.
As confirmed by the engineer and president of the technology park, Ruperto Long, The state contributed US$250,000 this year for the laboratory to be installed and begin operations at LATU. This provides “the possibility of offering state-of-the-art technology just around the corner,” he asserted regarding the laboratory that promises to democratize first-rate technology free of charge for Uruguayan companies.
In appearance, the laboratory is simple and bare, since most of its processes do not require physical infrastructure since today everything is in the cloud and the expertise of the technicians in the implementation of the new artificial intelligence and innovation tools.
Ines Guimaraens
Offices of the Microsoft laboratory at LATU.
