Mexico is preparing a multibillion-dollar infrastructure package with private companies and doubling efforts to attract U.S. investment that would otherwise go to China as it seeks to restart a stagnant economy.
The public-private investment package will include over 40 projects in areas like highways, energy ventures, telecommunications, and ports, Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O said in an interview at the National Palace in Mexico City. The official announcement will come soon, he said, declining to provide details until the package is unveiled.
“We have it already”, Ramirez de la O said on Thursday, adding that the initiative was approved by private sector representatives. “There’ll be an announcement of an infrastructure package in a few weeks when the president is ready.”
While President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has made similar multi-billion dollar public-private announcements in the past, this new program comes as Mexico posted two consecutive quarters of activity contraction, putting Latin America’s second-largest economy in the position of needing to jump-start growth.
Mexico under Lopez Obrador is already spending on big infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Maya Train in the country’s southeast and the Dos Bocas refinery, intended to decrease Mexico’s dependence on imported fuels.
Private investment fell during the pandemic and though it has picked back up in the construction segment, the government is looking to bolster it in other areas, Ramirez de la O said.
“For the first time in many years, public investment is higher than 3% of GDP,” he said.
Source: El Financiero
