Mr. Kobashi is a senior economist with post graduation in regional policy and planning. Besides his expertise in the development, monitoring and evaluation of regional programmes and projects he has a comprehensive experience of the Brazilian industrial minerals market specially on the interface with the construction industry and agribusiness complex.

B.Sc. - Economics - Faculdade de Economia e Administração - FEA-USP, Brazil, 1976;

M.Sc. - Regional Planning - Centro de Planejamento e Desenvolvimento Regional - CEDEPLAR-UFMG, Brazil, 1979.

Director of INTERFACE - Consultoria, Marketing e Participações Ltda.;

Consulting services to ABN AMRO BANK, CNEC - Consórcio Nacional de Engenheiros Consultores S/A (Camargo Corrêa Group), Government State of Paraná;

Executive Director of FIABCI-Brazil;

Professor of Economics and Public Finance - Pontifíc Catholic University - PUC, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.