Mexico City hosts G-20 summit to promote trade and investment

Within the framework of its 2012 G-20 presidency, Mexico will host the first G-20 Trade & Investment Promotion Summit in Mexico City November 5 - 6, 2012.  The series of meetings will bring together high level representatives of trade promotion organizations and investment promotion agencies as well as business leaders from G-20 member countries to share perspectives and recommendations aimed at facilitating trade and investment throughout the global economy.  The event will be held in a roundtable format, with sessions focusing on topics such as global value chains, synergies between trade and investment and maximizing the value of government services, among others.  Particular attention will be paid to the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  The summit will be opened by Mexican Economy Minister Bruno Ferrari and will feature participation by leading global players such as International Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Stefano Bertasi, World Trade Organization Chief of Staff Arancha González Laya and OECD Secretary General José Angel Gurría.

The G-20 is an organization composed of 20 leading developed and emerging economies, including that of the European Union.  The group was launched in 1999 as a forum for consultation and cooperation by finance and banking officials on policy matters affecting international economic stability.  The presidency or chair of the G-20 rotates annually. Mexico, as chair for 2012, hosted the G-20 Summit in June of this year at the Pacific coast resort of Los Cabos.  The meeting was attended by heads of government and other top officials from the organization’s member economies, such as U.S. President Barack Obama, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Chinese President Hu Jintao, in addition to host Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

G20 Trade and Investment Promotion Summit to Convene Global Leaders Following Up from B20 and G20 Summits in Los Cabos

On November 5-6, the G20 Trade and Investment Promotion Summit will take place in Mexico City where global leaders on trade and investment will convene. The Summit’s objective is to continue an ongoing dialogue between the trade and promotion agencies of the G20 countries in order to build synergies and foster cooperation. Organized by ProMexico, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the International Trade Centre (ITC), and event’s goal is to have a common call to action on trade and investment promotion which all parties can work upon over the course of the coming year, and present the results within the framework of the G20 Summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2013.

Presidents, CEOs, director generals or undersecretaries of the trade promotion organizations or investment promotion agencies of the G20 member states and invited guests will be attending this exclusive event. Keynote speakers include: ICC’s executive director of policy and business practices Stefano Bertasi, World Trade Organization’s chief of staff Arancha Gonzalez Laya, UNCTAD’s director of investment and enterprise division James Zhan, the Australian Trade Commision’s executive director for education and corporation operations Peter Yulie, OECD’s secretary general Dr. Jose Angel Gurria, the Spanish Trade Institute’s delegate counselor Maria del Coriseo Gonzalez, among many others.

Continue reading on the G20 Trade and Investment Promotion Summit in Los Cabos at MexicoToday.org!

Mexico Among the World’s Top 50 Destinations for “Doing Business” According to The World Bank

Mexico is ranked among the world’s top fifty economies for ease of doing business, and shows improvement for the fourth consecutive year, according to a report just released by The World Bank’s “Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises” report. 

The World Bank’s “Doing Business” report joins other internationally well-recognized sources, such as the World Economic Forum and the IMD, that demonstrate how Mexico is advancing in global competitiveness. As MexicoToday reported in recent months:

• Mexico has improved 13 positions in the past two years, as reported by The World Economic Forum (watch video here)
• Mexico has improved 10 positions in the past two years, as reported by the IMD  
• Mexico has improved six positions in the past two years, as reported by The World Bank’s Doing Business report 

The “Doing Business” report assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 185 economies, including Mexico, and ranks the economies measured by ten areas of business regulation, including: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.

Continue reading more on "Doing Business" in Mexico at MexicoToday.org!

The Keys to Mexico’s Economic Ascent

“Mexico ¿cómo vamos?” is a new website meant to track Mexico’s economic rise. Feel free to take a gander at http://www.mexicocomovamos.mx. 

The site is a creation of two of Mexico’s leading think tanks, and it draws on insights from 60 leading economists and policymakers, including the likes of Dr. Guillermo Ortiz, Dr. Luis de la Calle, and Dr. Jonathan Heath. A medley of interactive graphs and polls attend op-ed articles, making the site a wonk’s delight. (The question of the day: Can Mexico create one million formal sector jobs this year? ‘Unsure’ is just nudging out ‘agree’ as the most frequent choice among respondents.) The major drawback: so far it’s in Spanish only. 

This is just one more vignette in what has become a perceptible, though hardly dominant, trend in the world of global economic analysis in 2012: Mexico has an awfully bright future. Perhaps the most bullish prediction came from Nomura Securities earlier this year, when it forecast that Mexico’s economy would be larger than Brazil’s by 2022. A more conservative IMF forecast has Mexico’s economy eclipsing Brazil’s in 2028 or 2029. 

President Felipe Calderon, who will leave office on December 1, recently spoke to an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., about Mexico’s underlying economic strengths. He went on to tick off infrastructure gains, including new roads and universities, and Mexico’s doubling down on free trade, as evidenced by its recent entrance into negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Among the many factoids and macroeconomic indicators, this fact stood out to me: Mexico exports more manufactured goods than the rest of Latin America, including Brazil, combined. 

Read more on the Keys to Mexico's Economic Ascent and more at MexicoToday.org!

Mexico passes India, rises 5 spots in World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report

Mexico rose five places to 53rd place in the 2012-2013 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum. Mexico rose from 58th place in 2011-2012 to 53rd place today. Mexico passed India in economic competiveness, as India fell 3 spots from 56th place in 2011-2012 to 59th place in 2012-2013. Mexico also passed the nations of Mauritius, Slovenia, Hungary, and Cyprus in the rankings. To see the full list of countries and where they stand on the competitiveness rankings, go to MexicoToday.org. 

Mexico advances as an innovator according to World Economic Forum Global Competiveness Index

According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, Mexico has advanced 22 spots in the rankings in the economic pillar of innovation in the last two years.

The World Economic Forum defines innovation as those technological breakthroughs that have formed the basis of many of the productivity gains that economies have historically experienced. Innovation transforms the way things are being done, and opens up a wider range of new possibilities in terms of products and services. Innovation also requires extensive collaboration in research and technological developments between universities and industry. For more information on the most recent WEF Global Competitiveness report, go to MexicoToday.org.

Mexico makes great strides in business sophistication according to World Economic Forum Global Competiveness Index

According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, Mexico has advanced 23 spots in the rankings in the area of business sophistication in the last two years.

The World Economic Forum defines business sophistication as two elements - the quality of a country’s overall business networks and the quality of individual firms’ operations and strategies. The quality of a country’s business networks and supporting industries, as measured by the quantity and quality of local suppliers and the extent of their interaction, is important for a variety of reasons. For more information on the state of Mexico's competitiveness in the world, go to MexicoToday.org.

MoneyWeek Deems Mexican Economy ‘One of the Best Places to Invest’

This may surprise you, but Mexico is one of the best places to invest around the world. In the recent years, Mexico’s economy has grown into a huge export power with manufacturing accounting for over 24 percent of its GDP. Mexico also has a large and growing work force that is more highly educated than that of China, making Mexican goods even more competitive. For more on Mexican Economy go to MexicoToday.Org.

Preferred Compounding Opens Mexico Operations in San Luis Potosi

The company Preferred Compounding of Ohio will be expanding south following the recent acquisition of JevsaMex, the Mexican compounding operation owned by Spanish company, Iacp Jevsa. "For several years we've heard from our U.S.-based customers that they want us to fill their needs for high-quality custom compounds in Mexico," said Preferred Compounding Chief Executive Officer Ken Bloom. "The central location of this established mixing operation between Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey provides an excellent platform for doing so." For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

ECD Announces Automotive Trade Mission to Mexico City

As part of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development’s (ECD) TNTrade initiative, participants, including two Chattanooga companies, will be part of a trade mission to Mexico City July 17-20 focusing in on the automotive industry. TNTrade is a statewide initiative to make Tennessee the number one state in the Southeast for high quality jobs. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Almaden reports expansion of Mexico’s silver-gold-lead-zinc project

Almaden President/CEO Morgan Poliquin reports positively on the Tuligtic gold-silver project in Puebla State, Mexico. After the discovery of the gold-silver vein system in August of 2010, continued investigation shows a completely different orientation. Multiple zones and broad areas of calcite-quartz veining contained portions of high grade gold and silver mineralization. The corporate goal for 2012 is to produce a resource on the three zones already known and start preliminary drilling on some of the other areas of surface results. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Austria’s Engel riding auto sector growth in Mexico

Austrian injection molding machine supplier Engel Holding GmbH reported sales figures were considerably higher in 2012 than in 2011. In 2011, Engel did business in Mexico worth approximately $24.5 million. 60 percent of this business is with the automotive industry, an area in which the company specializes. In the first six months of 2012, auto makers produced an additional 1.41 million light vehicles, 1.25 million more than in the first half of 2011. For more Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Mexico’s auto output jumped 14 percent in June

The automobile sector in Mexico has started to see significant success, as June 2012 brought record figures for the month of June in any year. According to the Mexican Automobile Industry Association (AMIA), this June saw a 14% increase in production to a record 268,388 vehicles and exports saw a 22% increase from last June. In the first six months of the year, 1.42 million vehicles were produced (13% increase) and 1.17 million were exported (15% increase). For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

“Sister Port” Agreement with Port of New Bedford and Port of Tuxpan

Recently, the Port of New Bedford in Massachusetts, the leading fishing port in the United States, signed a “sister port” agreement with the Port of Tuxpan in Veracruz, Mexico in order to transform the city of Tuxpan into a hub for imports and exports. The Port of Tuxpan is already an important international freight services location for shipping companies and local companies. The “sister port” is hoped to help spur the creation of employment opportunities for many individuals and expand the economic ties between Mexican markets and specifically Massachusetts based businesses. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Endeavour Silver’s Q2 production surges by 22 percent

Vancouver-based company Endeavour Silver Corp reports the production of one million ounces of silver and 7,695 ounces of gold this quarter. This shows a 22 percent increase in silver output and a 59 percent increase in gold output. The company expects to meet its full-year production targets of 4.3 million ounces of silver and 26,000 ounces of gold. Despite a 24 percent decrease in the price of silver, the company's revenue rose 11 percent to $40.4 million due to the rise in production. As well as owning and operating the Guanacevi and Guanajuato mines in Mexico, Endeavor Silver Corp announced earlier this year a $250 million deal to buy AuRico Gold Inc's El Cubo silver-gold mine in Mexico. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

SilverCrest Mines says Santa Elena mine expansion on track for La Joya by Q4

SilverCrest Mines, a Mexican precious metals producer, has reaffirmed the start date for the Santa Elena mine expansion which plans to double its metal production. Detailed engineering for the facility should reach completion by the first quarter of 2013. SilverCrest stated its target to begin engineering by January 2014 with an initial production rate of 1,000 tonnes per day. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

NAPS Announces New Operations in Guanajuato With Japanese Companies Manufacturing in Mexico

North American Protection Sharing (NAPS, Inc.) looks to offer administrative and compliance support services from its new location in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.
This site is ideal for supporting companies interested in manufacturing in Mexico’s Guanajuato and Aguascalientes. Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Mitsubishi which wish to expand auto manufacturing in North America, are attracted to the Guanajuato location. Since 2010, this area of Mexico has become the most dynamic destination for Japanese investment. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Investment in Mexico Surpasses Brazil

Global investment interest and economic growth has switched its focus towards Mexico and away from Brazil in the last year. This is partly in due to Mexico’s strong economic ties to the United States. While Brazil finds itself closely involved with China, Mexico has continued to foster its economic relations with their neighboring United States. Portfolio investment in Mexico is on the rise and overall, Mexico’s economy is growing at a higher rate than anywhere else in Latin America. The gross fixed investment in Mexico rose 1.9 percent in April from March. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Leading Gas Supplier, Air Liquide Invests in Mexico

Air Liquide is a prominent French industrial gas supplier, providing services in the medical, electronic, and chemical worlds. Air Liquide is investing in the construction of a new Air Separation Unit (ASU) and a Steam Methane Reformer (SMR) in Pesquería, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Air Liquide’s decision to invest in Mexico came from the encouraging geographical location the country holds, as well as their emergent economic situation. Air Liquide has plans to supply principal steel manufactures like Ternium and Tenigal with nitrogen and hydrogen provisions in both gas and liquid forms. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

CEO of Siemens Mesoamerica, Louise Goeser Praises Mexico and Workers in Mexico

The CEO of Siemens Mesoamerica, Louise Goeser called Mexico the “China of the Americas” in a recent statement at a Siemens metals summit in Mexico City. Siemens is a principal innovator of electronics and electrical engineering. CEO Goeser believes Mexico is in the perfect position to surpass China as the primary United States sourcing location in the near future. As a competitive free-trade country, Mexico has the resources, as well as the geographical location to become one of the world’s primary manufacturing hubs. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.