To ensure the promotion of Mexico as an investment destination at the international level, the 10 states of the Federalist Alliance formed the Invest In MX Investment Attraction Agency.
Earlier this week the Secretary of Economic Development of Jalisco, Ernesto Sánchez Proal, who is also President of the Board of Directors of Invest In México, announced that the first five investment projects have already been captured, a direct result of the agency's promotional actions.
These five investment projects come from the United States and the destination states are Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Nuevo León and Chihuahua, and are focused on three sectors; advanced manufacturing, information technologies, and high technologies.
This agency was created with the objective of attracting investment to the country, since we recognized the loss of institutions such as ProMéxico in 2019. It was causing us a lack of global positioning to the country, that is, the attraction of foreign investment had been affected in some way by that lack of promotion abroad.
“The attraction of foreign investment is an engine of significant economic growth. From our point of view it is one of the activities that has the fastest and most forceful impact on the country's economic growth. In addition… there are geopolitical conjunctures that make this a historic moment for Mexico, in terms of taking advantage of what is happening. For example, the distancing of China and the United States on trade issues, and the approval of the New Free Trade Agreement of North America, and other cyclical issues that are causing a global relocation of supply chains,” shared Sánchez Proal.
Since its formal constitution in February 2021, the board of directors of Invest In Mx, whose presidency belongs to Jalisco until 2022, has held seven official meetings with international organizations to facilitate the arrival of productive capital to the country, and the development of strategies to increase competitiveness and growth. This work has resulted in the interest of investors, with foreign investment capturing 5,307,000,000 dollars during the first quarter of 2021.
These meetings have been with the Association of US Offices in Mexico, the Canadian Council of the Americas, the American Society, the Council of the Americas, and the ambassador of Brazil, among others.
In addition, three collaboration agreements have been made for national cooperation and investment. One was achieved with the National Index and two collaboration agreements are being signed with the organizations of the Pacific Alliance and the Mexican Association of Private Industrial Parks.
For this year and part of 2022, Invest In MX will have a work agenda focused on labor aspects, how to establish and invest in Mexico, the IMMEX mechanism, the Mexican banking system, infrastructure and the relationship of the states with the federation, all to promote Mexico to potential investors.
The Secretary of Economic Development of Michoacán, Ricardo Bernal Vargas, shared the importance of these states in economic terms, which represent 31% of the total population, that is, 39,454,396 Mexicans, of which 17,602,091 are part of the economically active population. In addition, they contribute 8. 11 trillion pesos to the GDP.
"As you can see, these 10 states have a very important representation, and of course we want other states to join so that we can continue working for Mexico to attract the foreign investment that is so much needed, and that is why Invest In Mexico was formed," shared Bernal Vargas.
Carlos Alberto García González, Secretary of Economic Development of Tamaulipas, highlighted that the industry of the states of Jalisco, Colima, Aguascalientes, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Chihuahua and Durango is important for the economic development of the country, in addition to point out what these states can offer investors.
“This promotion agency seeks to promote competitive and comparative advantages that our country has, to precisely make them known to the world, and thus reposition the Mexico brand internationally. The 10 states that make up, at the moment, the Invest In Mexico Facilitation Board agency stand out as leaders in the industry in exports, in connectivity, and also in innovation, occupying the first places in industrial exports in sectors as important as automotive, machinery manufacturing, electrical appliances, and also the chemical industry.”
“In addition, it is also possible to have the first positions in the country in logistics thanks to the commercial flow that our bridges present, and the port movement in our different maritime ports. This leadership was what led us to make a collaboration that went beyond promotion and that is how we have developed strategies that promote the productive chain in these sectors and collaboration between the main industrial clusters.”
“What we seek is to promote the development of suppliers, the attraction of new investments and the generation of economic and commercial opportunities for our country,” added García González.
The challenges of the agency for the future according to what was indicated by Manuel Alejandro González Martínez, Secretary of Economic Development of Aguascalientes, is to position the investment attraction agency.
“Today, as we know, Mexico does not have a platform, like the one we used to have as ProMéxico, and it is one of the great tasks that we as an alliance have, to position this Invest In Mexico platform, and make it a true platform for dialogue with foreign investors… and that it can land precisely those projects that we are looking for so much for the generation of wealth and generation of new sources of employment, within the framework of the cooperation that we have as states.”
“I invite both companies established in Mexico, and all investment promotion agencies from other countries to get to know this platform, and to know all the information we have at their disposal, precisely so that these investment projects can be materialized in our country,” concluded González Martínez.
Also present at the event were the secretaries of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima and Durango.
The ten states that make up the investment attraction agency of the Federalist Alliance are: Aguascalientes, Colima, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Michoacán, Durango, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Guanajuato.