Mexico’s Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, Alfonso Navarrete Prida, recently spoke of recent economic reforms in Mexico at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the city of Dalian, China. The purpose of Navarette Prida’s presence at the meeting was to attract Chinese investment capital to Mexico.

The Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare asserted that the structural reforms that Mexico has made recently have made it one of the world’s leading destinations for foreign investment. He outlined Mexico’s level of service offerings, infrastructure and the educational level of the country’s population as some of the elements that make Mexico a preferential place to do business.

Navarette Prida asserted that Mexico and China are “two complementary economies.” Because of this complementarity the Mexican official cited the manufacturing sector as the area that has the most potential due to the fact that at this juncture “Mexico has surpassed China in competitiveness”. He went on to explain that when China first joined the WTO, Mexico lost some of its export share to Mexico. Over time, however, an increase in Chinese wage structure, lower tax incentives for exporters and higher transportation costs have enabled Mexico to regain the ground that had previously been lost.

The fact that Mexico is now a more economically rational site selection location from which to supply manufactured product to North America and to the United States, in particular, because of this reality investment in manufacturing in Mexico by Chinese business is a good option.

The government official pointed out that recent economic reforms in Mexico such as how businesses handle individual employee contracts will provide Chinese and other executives the certainty that they need to make their investment decisions.

In addition to manufacturing Alfonso Navarrete Prida also mentioned that other opportune areas for Chinese investment include the mining sector and tourism. He also pointed out that recent economic reforms in Mexico have targeted the gas and oil industries.

The full article can be read in its original Spanish at Uniradio Noticias.