In the first seven months of the year, the export maquiladora industry registered a growth of 4.8% and the upward trend will continue in the following months thanks to its greater dependence on the external sector, said this Wednesday Luis Manuel Hernández, president of the National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry ( Index ).
“The sector is going to grow and continues to grow because our market, our competition, is outside of Mexico. We are on a very good path and we expect to grow 6%”, predicted the manager in a videoconference.
He added that the Index sector went from being 60% to 62% of Mexican foreign trade. “What is happening is that jobs are being promoted, investment is being promoted; this part of growing organically has helped us lately.”
In recent years, particularly since the appearance of the coronavirus, and now with the conflict between China and the United States over Taiwan, Mexico has become a point of attraction for the , but investors need certainty to invest.
In that sense, the lack of security and the problems that have been registered in the electricity supply are issues that can stop investments in the country.
Luis Manuel Hernández pointed out that there are states in the country that do not have electricity available, and where there is, “the cost is very high. For a lake I don’t have the permits; on the other hand, there is no competition”, he lamented.
He remembered the blackouts that took place a few weeks ago in Mexicali. Without specifying the economic impact, he assured that not having electricity causes production to stop, stop shipping. In addition to looking for other options, such as the use of diesel, which is not an alternative for green issues.
“It has been uncomfortable to live with this lack of certainty of having energy available,” said Hernández, pointing out that the bottleneck in this matter is the federal government.
“The fact that you have regulated competition does not mean that you lose sovereignty,” assured the president of National Index.
Regarding the issue of insecurity, Luis Manuel Hernández commented that the impact will depend on the company, but he calculated that around 5% of the cost of companies goes to prevention.
He regretted that, in an issue that would have to be resolved by the federal, state and municipal government, it is resolved by the companies.
In this regard, he called for “a real presence and real performance” of the police forces, as well as working on prevention issues, to stop being reactive in the face of security problems.
