Alejandro Delgado, a former federal official and international consultant, said that Veracruz stands out in the region for having key resources such as water, natural gas, a seaport and a wide availability of engineers.
Guadalajara, Jal. The southern states of Mexico are gaining prominence in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) linked to nearshoring, thanks to their access to resources such as water and energy, in addition to their logistics infrastructure, especially in Veracruz, said Alejandro Delgado Ayala, international consultant and former ProMéxico official.
“There are new participants, such as Baja California Sur, but the south is beginning to stand out, especially Veracruz, which has water, a port, electricity, natural gas and a large number of engineers in the petrochemical sector. Veracruz is a key player for us,” said Delgado, managing partner of GCR Consultores.
According to data from the Ministry of Economy for the first half of 2024, Quintana Roo and Yucatán were among the four states that attracted the most new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with 127.1 and 80 million dollars, respectively, while Veracruz attracted 1.5 million dollars in new investments.
“In certain states in the southeast there are talent resources and strategic locations that give them potential. The construction of gas pipeline networks in Veracruz, which has been going on for more than a decade, gives it a competitive advantage and possibly also to Oaxaca,” said Alejandro Delgado, former official of the Bank of Mexico and former SECOFI delegate in Jalisco.
Talent
Alejandro Delgado Ayala stressed that, in order for the southern states of the country to better take advantage of investment opportunities, “it is necessary to value the talent and capacity of people to execute manufacturing processes, which is not an easy task. For this reason, companies usually opt for locations such as Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana or Ciudad Juárez, since they have an established culture and human capacity, although more expensive, which guarantees competitive levels.”
So far, according to data from the Ministry of Economy, “investments are directed to places with high competitiveness and rapid production capacity.”
Agribusiness
Although Mexico is the main exporter of food and beverages to the United States, the specialist warned that “if we do not integrate the south into the industrialization and export model, we will not achieve the necessary progress.”
He also stressed that, faced with problems such as the extreme drought affecting the country, “the agri-food sector, which requires a lot of water, must focus on regions where there is sufficient availability of the resource.”
