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An excellent place to invest
A competitive country
According to a study carried out by the consulting firm AlixPartners, Mexico is the country with the lowest costs for the manufacture of industrial components among the main emerging economies (Brazil, China and India) thanks to the fact that it possesses an attractive exchange rate against the dollar, relatively low transportation costs and a large number of Free Trade Agreements.
Furthermore, a study published by the International Institute for National Development revealed that Mexico rose 4 points in the World Competitiveness Scoreboard, in which it went from the 50th to the 46th place, surpassing countries such as Turkey, Italy and Russia.
A country open to business
Mexico has a network of 12 Free Trade Agreements with 44 countries. As a result of having signed trade agreements on three continents, Mexico positions itself as a gateway to a potential market of over one billion consumers and 60 percent of world GDP.
In 1994, Mexico signed a Free Trade Agreement with Canada and the United States, countries with which it forms the world’s largest free trade area: more than 450 million inhabitants whose production of goods and services exceeds 16.9 billion dollars a year.
Moreover, Mexico has a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, whose 27 countries concentrate 18.5 percent of world imports (excluding trade among its member countries). Recently, Mexico strengthened its links with Japan by signing an Economic Association Agreement to establish a cooperation agenda regarding small and medium-sized enterprises. In Latin America, Mexico has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Nicaragua and Uruguay, and has signed Economic Complementarity Agreements with Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay and Cuba.
Mexico has signed Agreements on Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments (which foster legal protection of capital flows earmarked for the productive sector) with 24 countries and signed Agreements to Avoid Double Taxation (which prevent the taxpayer from being burdened by taxes of a comparable nature and in one same period by two or more fiscal jurisdictions) with more than 30.
The country’s future is promising: Mexico has implemented a number of successful programs for trade simplification, owing to which products with zero tariff will increase from 20 percent in 2008 to 65 percent in 2013.
A country of young people
Mexico has a population of almost 107 million inhabitants (2008), 56 percent of whom are under 30 years old.
During the first quarter of 2008 the country’s Economically Active Population (EAP) was 45.1 million people, a figure that exceeds by one million that of the same quarter of 2007. In 2008, 58 of every 100 people of working age participated in the economic activity. It has been calculated that in 30 years’ time, Mexico’s EAP will be of 69 million people.
In Mexico, every year 90,000 engineering and technical students graduate. The Mexican Higher Education System is made up of 2,539 institutions which offer educational services and, of course, international exchange opportunities. Higher education in Mexico reaches a total enrollment (school and non-school) of almost 3 million students.
An economically and financially stable country
The economic policies of the last few decades have been a determining factor in guaranteeing the sound and stable macroeconomic environment that persists in Mexico. The country has well-balanced public finances and a wide margin for maneuver in critical circumstances. Likewise, it shows external accounts with very moderate deficits and one of the lowest inflation rates among Latin America’s main economies.
In order to deal with the effects of the current economic situation, the Mexican government has implemented several effective countercyclical measures that have made it possible to attenuate the consequences of the crisis.
