This is the moment for Mexico, said Manuel Bravo, President of the Global Business Council and President and CEO of Bayer in Mexico, during the Forbes Mexico Business Forum, after stating that it is the country best prepared to face the challenges that they have and to take the opportunities so that sustained economic growth continues.
The above is not coincidental. In the last 30 years, Bravo explained that Mexico has worked hard to generate ecosystems in various industries, it has consolidated supply chains, making them more robust and efficient, added to its geographical location, it has made it an attractive destination to invest, regardless of Which administration is in Mexico or the United States.
The above “allows us to be closer and be part of the largest economic block in the world,” he mentioned.
This growth has to do with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which according to figures from the Mexican government from January to September 2024, Mexico captured a total of 35,732 million dollars of FDI, a growth of 8.5% compared to the same period. 2023, and it is expected that by the end of the year that figure will exceed 38,000 million dollars.
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“As the Global Business Council, a group of 60 international companies that represent between 40 and 50% of FDI, we want to create those bridges with the government, with the different secretariats to bring our point of view, the best practices that we see in the different countries in which we operate, and very important: we are the main promoters of Mexico to bring foreign capital to the country,” he said.
Among the main axes on which the Global Business Council will focus are talent training, energy transition, infrastructure, rule of law and security.
The challenges
Given the recent arrival of Claudia Sheinbaum to the presidency, as well as the triumph of Donald Trump in the United States, Bravo explained that these political changes have occurred constantly in recent decades, however, what the Council will focus on will be take advantage of the opportunities that nearshoring brings.
“It has to do with training the talent that is needed, being very aggressive in the energy transition, creating more and more infrastructure and connectivity, and it is very important to search and continue working to have an effective State that allows regulatory and legal issues that provide certainty. legal to those investments that are going to arrive in the next 20 or 30 years. As well as the issue of security, which is key for those same investments,” he stated.
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The Council, according to Bravo, sees Mexico with optimism and many possibilities to continue investing. “The job is to have the ability to attract, as driving companies that we are, small and medium-sized companies, which perhaps have not had a presence in Mexico and that see in the ecosystems that have been formed a great opportunity to have a return of its capital much better than anywhere else in the world,” he said.
After the approval of the reform to the Judiciary, Bravo points out that legal certainty is required for investments to continue coming, which is why they seek to ensure that judges have quality and independence. Likewise, with the recent approval of the reform regarding organic simplification, that is, the one that extinguishes seven autonomous bodies.
“The secondary laws (reforming the judiciary) that have been approved allow this to happen and it is a matter of being implemented correctly and providing that certainty. The same with the simplification reform so that each of those industries that are regulated (telecommunications, hydrocarbons, electricity) have the certainty that the way it is structured does not break with any of the points during the review of the T-MEC and that allows for long-term stability, from a regulatory point of view, to investments and projects that remain in the country,” he added.
The review of the T-MEC is planned for 2026, so the Council is working with the Ministry of Economy to be prepared and see the possibilities to address the negotiation points between the different countries and resolve them.
“Because this world is changing so quickly that what was defined six years ago surely there are things that can be improved, not saying what was done 30 years ago.”
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