By 2025, Oaxaca plans to invest in energy, with the Interoceanic Corridor as the main magnet for these projects. “We’re working on that with Helax, which has a $10 billion investment in green hydrogen in the state, and other companies are asking us not to disclose the launch, but we’re working very hard with the business sector,” Raúl Ruiz Robles, the state’s Secretary of Economic Development (Sedeco), told El Economista.
The state has six Development Hubs, which are estimated to receive more than $720 billion in investment over the next six years. “The corridor isn’t a project that will happen five years from now; it’s a long-term project where we have to be attractive so that all these large companies can make relocation decisions. And these relocations take five to seven years of financial analysis, assessing the competitive advantages we have over other states.”
“As a nation, we haven’t fully grasped what the Interoceanic Corridor is all about, the impact it will have on labor mobility, on people’s well-being; but we also have to consider the impact it will have on our culture, on our roots in Oaxaca, on our traditions, to ensure that development doesn’t overwhelm the regions. We have to prepare our youth, the business sector, and the people who make up our companies.”
Along the Interoceanic Corridor, which connects the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic, there are 14 Development Poles for Well-being (Podebis), properties ranging from 80 to more than 500 hectares that are in the process of being practically activated for the development of the automotive, energy generation, pharmaceutical, and agro-industrial industries.
The Asunción Ixtaltepec development center was awarded through an international public tender to the company Arzyz, which will build a plant for the transformation of aluminum into semi-finished products on 50 hectares of land in August of this year, according to a press conference on April 2. Oaxaca is the state with the most Podebis (Industrial Development Programs), followed by Veracruz with four, Chiapas with three, and Tabasco with one.
“We are in the midst of promoting investment attraction for Oaxaca.” Plan Mexico, with the Interoceanic Corridor and the Podebis (Industrial Development Programs), is of great importance to the state. “We don’t just have to think about the development centers; we have to think about the entire ecosystem outside the Podebis that must be generated to attract people who will live in the interior,” such as housing, schools, health centers, and more.
Regarding the challenges in terms of creating formal jobs, he acknowledged that “formalization is difficult but not impossible. Many people are in the informal sector due to lack of knowledge, not out of choice. We want them to join the system that corresponds to them, without later being targeted by the Tax Update System (SAT). Two years ago, we began basic financial education campaigns. We support entrepreneurs in bringing them into the formal sector. Oaxaca has a 1.5 billion peso loan portfolio through Nacional Financiera (National Finance Corporation) for people who want to formalize their businesses.”
Oaxaca is changing through infrastructure. “The highway to the Isthmus and the highway to the coast have just been opened; the Puerto Escondido International Airport has been remodeled.”
Source: eleconomista
