What’s behind the visit to Casa Rosada of the owner of the largest blue topaz in the world

The president Javier Miley opened the Casa Rosada to meetings with which it seeks to protect its economic program with the entry of foreign currencies from the international border. This Friday he received a guardian of the world’s mineral wealth and leaders of the pharmaceutical industry.

The day started early at the presidential office and ended in the afternoon with the Minister of Health as guarantor. On the table was a projection of investments that the libertarian administration seeks to capture through international agreements and regimes offering benefits for major productive reforms.

The morning began at Balcarce 50 with a meeting with Maurice Ostro, influential British gemologist and philanthropist, famous in the northern hemisphere for managing Ostro Minerals and owning the largest faceted blue topaz in the world, a mass weighing more than two kilos found by his father in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and exhibited at the Mineral Gallery since 2016.

The link between the English tycoon and the Argentinian libertarian was born from the visit in 2024 of the former prime minister of United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who has known Ostro since the late 1980s during academic debates at the Oxford Union, and who served as a link. The first face-to-face meeting between the two men took place this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The official state gift register reveals, according to La Nación, that the president received from Ostro cufflinks and a bracelet made with the stone that defines the family heritage.

On this occasion, according to information that circulated, Ostro arrived in Buenos Aires to test the waters for the deployment of digital infrastructure in the country promoted by the libertarian administration. The main interest is in the installation of digital data processing centers, a vein that Milei’s management is seeking to exploit as a priority. This business court takes place under the aegis of the “Super RIGI”the strengthened incentive regime for large investments with which the government tries to attract technology-based foreign capital.

Although a cautious reserve is maintained in official offices and a formal statement on the amounts and locations has not yet been published, the arrival of Ostro – as Peter Thiel previously was – operates as a validation of this roadmap of the libertarian plan: giving the country a sort of deregulated sanctuary for the storage of global data, an indispensable strategic asset in the knowledge economy, offering fiscal guarantees and climatic attractions.

At midday, the political scene became institutionally denser with the arrival of senior executives from the Chamber of Medicinal Specialties (CAEME). Supported by the Minister of Health, Mario LugonesMilei received a group of executives who focus the pulse of cutting-edge medicine in the country: Gastón Domingues Caetano (CAEME), Carlos Annes (MSD), María Pía Orihuela (Roche), Silvana Kurkdjian (Bristol Myers Squibb), Francisco García (Novartis), Maximiliano Gutiérrez (GlaxoSmithKline), Carolina López Camelo (Sanofi) and Agustina Ruiz. Villamil (Pfizer).

The outcome of the meeting was an announcement of unprecedented magnitude for the local scientific system: a projected investment of $8 billion aimed at the development of clinical research over the next six years, with the explicit objective of positioning Argentina as a global reference in the knowledge economy and medical science.

“This initiative aims to further strengthen this activity which today already represents almost 50% of the total private investments in R&D of the Argentine business sector, generating greater real income in foreign currencies for the country”, they detailed from the chamber through an official statement after the hearing.

The figures managed by the sector are conclusive as to the macroeconomic impact of the agreement: “Out of 10 dollars that enter the country to finance commercial R&D activities, 9.5 correspond to Clinical Research and Development. CAEME associates contribute 95% of the total investment. »

The commitment of pharmaceutical multinationals aims to deepen this capillarity through coordinated work with the portfolio led by Lugones. The plan envisages the design of specific incentives for local research centers, continuing education programs for health professionals and, fundamentally, a strong boost to scientific research within the public hospital network.

“This agreement constitutes an important step for health and science in Argentina. It not only promotes greater international investments in science and health, but it also allows patients in our country to access cutting-edge treatments at the same time as those in the most advanced countries in the world,” said Gastón Domingues Caetano, president of CAEME, assessing the political and health significance of the event.