Two businesses have signed on to invest in a special economic zone in Chiapas.
A food processing company from Guatemala will be the first investor to break ground at the Puerto Chiapas special economic zone (SEZ).
Grupo Idealsa will invest US $70 million in two plants, where 180,000 tonnes of cooking oil and 44 million liters of fruit and milk drinks will be produced every year.
The firm Agroparque will also set up shop at Puerto Chiapas where together they will form the anchor businesses for the zone and invest $324 million, creating an estimated 3,000 jobs.
“The transparency in the selection process generated the credibility and trust that allowed a firm from Guatemala with more than 100 years of history to invest more than $70 million outside of its country for the first time, choosing Mexico as the destination from which Central American trade will be boosted,” said Grupo Idealsa CEO Edwin Rolando Alburez Rodena.
Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani, head of the federal agency responsible for the SEZs, said 19 firms from the agri-business, pulp and paper, electronics, electrical generation and automotive parts industries have formally agreed to invest close to $1 billion in Puerto Chiapas and create 9,200 jobs and increase trade between Mexico and Central America.
The investments will also help promote development in neighboring municipalities such as Tapachula, Tuxtla Chico and Metapa, an agency official said.
Other zones have been established in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; Salina Cruz, Oaxaca; Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz; Campeche; Dos Bocas, Tabasco; Progreso, Yucatán. By early September several had signed up energy projects worth $2.5 billion.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
