Aggressive Mexican Infrastructure Improvements Underway
Mexico is vying to cement their status as North America’s manufacturing hub, and sweeping changes are underway to ensure a strong economic future for the Latin American country. Mexican infrastructure improvements are already increasing international investment, and a new plan is underway to expand the country’s capacity and growth in coming years.
Mexican Infrastructure Improvements Take Center Stage
Sweeping reforms characterized the incoming president, Enrique Peña Nieto, when his administration made reforms in nearly every public sector the top priority for the manufacturing country. Economic growth was paramount, and the country made great strides in many areas to improve Mexico’s economic capability, including:
- Overhauled labor laws
- Tightened intellectual property laws
- Partially privatized energy sector
- Improved border security
Among the most dramatic of reforms was the introduction of the National Infrastructure Program 2014-2018, in 2014, which identifies approximately 750 specific projects and prescribes approximately $600 billion USD – about 8% of GDP – to accomplish them. The funds are coming from both public and private sources, and will focus primarily on energy, transportation, and communications infrastructure. Among the many projects currently underway are:
- New ports
- Expanding existing ports
- Paving more roads
- Extending railways
- Expanding electricity generation capacity
Mexican Infrastructure Improvements by Sector
World demand for goods manufactured in Mexico threaten to outpace capacity, but Mexico is rallying significant investment for overhauling major economic sectors, particularly in the energy and transportation fields. Total value of the infrastructure construction market reached approximately $50 billion USD in 2015, and is expected to reach approximately $60 billion USD by 2020. Overall, the investment into these infrastructure improvements is expected to ultimately reach $600 billion USD.
Some of the specific infrastructure improvements on the agenda for each sector include:
Energy:
- Extend and develop infrastructure for exploring and extracting hydrocarbons.
- Encourage the development of fuel transportation and storage projects.
- Promote the development of domestic petrochemicals.
- Expand quality electricity distribution, reducing supply losses and increasing service coverage.
Water:
- Increase supply of drinking water and drainage capacity.
- Build flood-protection infrastructure.
Communications and Transportation:
- Develop multimodal transport infrastructure to generate competitive costs, value, improved security, and economic and social development.
- Modernize passenger mobility in comprehensive, safe, agile, and sustainable ways.
- Provide better communications access and service coverage to the public.
Health:
- Establish inter-institutional health resource planning and management.
- Consolidate health infrastructure, prioritizing vulnerable-population areas.
