None of the federal government’s recently approved and proposed constitutional reforms will be detrimental to investment in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday after meeting with more than 200 business leaders at the United States-Mexico CEO Dialogue meeting in Mexico City.
In support of that assertion, Sheinbaum and Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters that companies on Tuesday announced plans to invest more than US $20 billion in Mexico in 2025. However, the bulk of the investments had previously been announced.
At a press conference at the National Palace, Sheinbaum said that the meeting with 240 business leaders was “very good” and asserted that the government addressed the concerns the business sector has about the recently enacted judicial reform as well as a range of reform proposals that have not yet passed Congress, including one aimed at disbanding a number of autonomous government agencies.
She also said that there will be ongoing dialogue between the government and the business sector to clear up “any doubts” they have about the policies of her administration.
“Your investments are safe in Mexico,” Sheinbaum told the CEOs during a speech at the annual meeting.
Referring to the judicial reform, a proposed energy reform currently before Congress and a range of other constitutional bills that former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador put forth in February, the president told the Tuesday afternoon press conference that “none of these reforms represents a problem for investment in Mexico.”
“The opposite is true. The rule of law will be strengthened, the national electricity system will be strengthened,” Sheinbaum said.
Investors are particularly concerned about the plan to allow citizens to elect all of Mexico’s judges, including Supreme Court justices. Many investors — and others — fear that judges sympathetic to the ruling Morena party’s legislative agenda could come to dominate the nation’s courts, effectively removing an important check on government power and possibly posing a threat to their investments.
The energy reform proposals seek to enshrine in the constitution a majority share (54%) of the electricity generation market for the Mexican state, a move that could dissuade private investment in the sector.
Ebrard touts ‘the investment announcements made today’
Early in the post-CEO Dialogue press conference, Ebrard said that “the investment announcements made today in the presence of President Claudia Sheinbaum” exceed $20 billion.
The economy minister referred to four investment announcements for 2025.
- A planned $15 billion investment by Mexico Pacific in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Sonora.
- A planned $6 billion investment by Amazon Web Services in data centers in Querétaro.
- A planned $1.5 billion investment by Royal Caribbean in tourism amenities in Mahahual, Quintana Roo. (The figure cited by the company last week was around $600 million).
- A recently confirmed $12 billion investment by Pemex and Woodside Energy to develop a Gulf of Mexico oil field.
The Associated Press reported that “much” of the investment announced (or reaffirmed) on Tuesday “was neither new, nor completely certain.”
For example, Mexico Pacific’s plan to build an LNG plant and export terminal on the Gulf of California in Puerto Libertad, Sonora, “has been on the drawing boards since at least 2020, and still depends on getting cross-border gas pipelines approved and built,” AP said.
The company’s CEO, Sarah Bairstow, co-chaired the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue on Tuesday and spoke at Sheinbaum’s press conference at the National Palace.
“We’ve had a wonderfully constructive dialogue here today, very important to the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s been fantastic hearing the vision directly from the presidenta herself around investment in the country and the support for these critically needed assets,” she said.
“At Mexico Pacific, we’re proud to be developing the Saguaro Energía LNG facility and accompanying gas pipeline. This represents the largest foreign direct investment into Mexico to date and we’ve certainly reaffirmed our investment on the back of the conditions we see here for investment in Mexico,” Bairstow said.
Ebrard said that Sheinbaum conveyed messages of “certainty” to investors at Tuesday’s meeting, and declared himself that “investments in Mexico are safe.”
Sheinbaum: Investment approvals to be expedited
Sheinbaum told the CEO dialogue attendees that “starting in January next year, we’re going to create the Agency for Digital Transformation and Telecommunications.”
“In a single institution we’re going to concentrate everything related to the simplification and digitalization of bureaucratic procedures,” she said.
“This will allow an investment to become reality in months, instead of two or three years.”
At the press conference, Sheinbaum said that a bill allowing the creation of the new agency will be presented to Congress “very soon.”
“… One of the reasons why national and foreign investors avoid investing in Mexico is because of the delay in [completing] bureaucratic procedures,” she said.
“… If we facilitate this, it’s an enormous incentive [for investors],” she said.
Sheinbaum also told reporters that the government outlined its “investment strategy” to the U.S. and Mexican business leaders present at the meeting.
“[It includes] investment in housing, investment in trains, investment in highways, investment in ports, … investment in infrastructure in general,” she said.
“… Essentially that was the dialogue. The majority of [business] chambers were present, as well as Mexican business people … and [there was] a very important representation of United States companies,” she said.
Asked about the 2026 review — or even renegotiation — of the USMCA, Sheinbaum said she hoped to largely keep the North American free trade pact as is.
“We have the idea of maintaining the agreement with few modifications,” she said.
Francisco Cervantes, president of Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council, told the same press conference that Sheinbaum had made it clear that she is very supportive of investment in Mexico.
“In the voice of the president, the line of action moving forward in Mexico was ratified, and it is [promoting and supporting] investment,” he said.
The new federal government appears determined to take a very proactive approach in seeking new investment in Mexico, as demonstrated by Finance Minister Rogelio Ramírez de la O’s recent meetings with the CEOs of JP Morgan and BlackRock.
In the first six months of 2024, foreign direct investment exceeded US $31 billion, a new record for Mexico. The government hopes that even more impressive numbers can be recorded in the near future as companies act on their investment announcements and other foreign firms are attracted to the country amid the ongoing nearshoring trend.
With reports from El Financiero, El Economista, Reforma and AP
