Which country has improved its position in global manufacturing and design equipment to aircraft parts? Mexico. Surprised? The fall in the peso against the dollar since August has made Mexico a better deal for business and tourism than ever before.
It is true that foreign investment fell 46% in 2008 to 18.6 billion U.S. dollars. The economy contracted 9.5% in January. The country expects to lose up to half a million jobs in the first half of this year.
The issue is related to loss of market economic mismanagement and the global recession as a whole? Manufacturing is down in China and India, everywhere. Even when the border cities of Mexico had problems with drug trafficking and violence, business investment continued to grow until the global financial crisis.
In the past Mexico has had problems of competition for business development due to lack of standards to be met for international competitiveness. Things have changed. Mexico has increased its ability to compete after studying the successful models in Europe, Asia and the U.S.. Local governments have cooperated with universities and private industry to improve its research and development, customer service, and train its workforce. For example, Mexican exports of aerospace products have nearly tripled to three billion U.S. since then.
Mazatlan is a huge hub of education, engineering, and manufacturing and will continue to lead the way. This makes it a great place for expats to settle down and do some occasional consulting to help keep Mexico on the right path as far as economic development goes.