Surely many have wondered what elements favor the arrival of large investments and projects in the country. I believe that there are two essential factors, the first of which is “nearshoring”, a model that has gained great strength in the last two years due to its commercial advantages.
Nearshoring is an outsourcing strategy in which a company transfers part of its production to third parties, mainly located in nearby countries and with similar time zones.
In fact, the growing popularity of nearshoring, due to the economic benefits it offers, has been such that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) itself estimated, at the end of last year, that this model -of transferring operations to other locations- could increase the global exports of Latin America and the Caribbean in 78,000 million dollars every year, approximately. In this sense, Mexico has many advantages such as its geographical location, current trade agreements and the large number of labor it has.
The second point, which can definitely attract more foreign capital, is technological acceleration and that it can be successfully implemented in various local industries.
Today, an element such as digital transformation is already a cornerstone of business strategies for many companies. And it is that within the main benefits offered by automation is the reduction of costs, increased efficiency, elimination of rework, as well as a reduction in errors and delivery times to develop a product.
Fortunately, the digital transformation has taken very important steps in the country as a result of the pandemic. According to a study on digital maturity developed by the firm EY, Mexico is above the average for countries in Latin America and only behind Brazil and Chile, which shows us that it is moving on the right path, but it would lack a third crucial element for the job to be complete: talent development.
This is part of an economic sector that many have defined as the knowledge industry, which focuses on the creation, acquisition, processing and distribution of knowledge and intellectual skills. In other words, its objective is for a country to have the necessary human capital, with sufficient know-how to solve problems faced by any company dedicated to a fundamental sector for the economy, such as technology, manufacturing, and the automotive industry (which are closely linked to nearshoring).