Julián Uriostegui Carbajal, president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) of Guerrero, asks the government of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo to declare Acapulco as a free or welfare zone, so that it receives an investment estimated at 70 billion pesos.
“A free zone or Welfare zone of vital importance for Acapulco and Coyuca, because it would accelerate the recovery and construction of the image, brand and economic strength of both municipalities, mostly devastated,” he assures.
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The declaration of a free zone, made by the president, will generate and recover employment that, considering the figures as of September 2024, more than 96,407 Guerreros lost their jobs, according to the proposal held by Forbes Mexico.
Almost more than half of the jobs lost in Guerrero were in Acapulco, so the direct impact of declaring the welfare zone “would involve recovering 50 thousand jobs, both formal and informal,” he says.
“There will be an arrival of investments focused on reconstruction but also on new investments that see fiscal attractiveness for both municipalities that, we estimate, could reach up to 70 billion pesos in all areas,” details the president of CCE Guerrero.
It will also develop value chains and local supply by strongly promoting the construction sector, as well as encouraging compliance with worker-employer obligations, says the businessman.
The free zone or Bienestar will stop the labor migration from Acapulco declared by the unions in the tourism sector in a range of 10 thousand workers who sought opportunities in other work destinations, adds the leader of the organization, who delivered the proposal to the government of Claudia Sheinbaum.
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Hurricane Otis was a natural phenomenon that impacted Acapulco, Guerrero, on October 25, 2023. It became a Category 5 hurricane that caused severe damage to infrastructure, homes, schools, and health centers.
During the night of September 23, 2024, Tropical Cyclone John impacted the coasts of the Mexican state of Guerrero in Marquelia with a level 3 category, leaving 4 people dead. Later that number increased to more than 50 people who died as a result of the natural phenomenon.
In one of the first government actions, the President of the Republic traveled to Acapulco, and first-hand, together with part of her cabinet, observed the damage.
For those of us who were born and raised in Acapulco, or for those who have adopted Acapulco as their home or place of work, we know that the natural disasters that Otis and Jhon caused, expresses Julián Uriostegui Carbajal.
The hurricanes had a frontal impact on Acapulco’s public and private infrastructure, as well as showing decades of lack of investment for its maintenance: “Before Otis and Jhon, our city had stopped growing economically.”
“These two hurricanes put a handbrake on Acapulco’s economy for months, just as we must recognize that there were moments when hopelessness invaded us, just as it has been a little more than 15 very intense months with ups and downs; with drops and more drops,” says the businessman.
In coordination with the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, a campaign will begin to invite reinvestments, new private investments in real estate developments, in hotels, tourist products, restaurants, and in the entire business ecosystem of Acapulco, details the president of CCE Guerrero.
And 100 days later, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo presented and made official the Comprehensive Plan known as Acapulco transforms with you, with which the new Acapulco Comprehensively Planned Center is created that will be managed by Fonatur.
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Behind the strategy of Claudia Sheinbaum’s government there is a battery of investments and projects “financed by the Government of Mexico, which we consider will be a before and after for Acapulco.”
“From here a call to redouble efforts, to reactivate the virtuous circle of the economy of our city among everyone, special mention to the banking sector, so that they take note of the Acapulco Transformation Plan, and consider opening the key to credit in Acapulco in the shortest possible time,” concludes Julián Uriostegui Carbajal.
