It’s an ambitious strategy to attract high-tech and engineering companies, especially from the automotive, aerospace, and semiconductor sectors, to set up their operations at the Industrial Poles of Well-being Progreso I and Merida I.
“With the growing global demand for chips, these poles are ready to offer all the necessary facilities to attract sector companies,” said Ernesto Herrera Novelo, Secretary of Economic Development and Labor (Sefoet) of Yucatan, in an interview.
These development poles are designed to become key centers of investment through a series of fiscal and administrative incentives as well as investments in energy infrastructure and connectivity.
Yucatan is in a privileged position to capitalize on the opportunities of nearshoring, with sustained growth in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, generating over 25,000 formal jobs so far this sexennium and 12,000 vacancies to be filled in the next two years, highlighted Herrera Novelo.
“We are working on an ecosystem that includes infrastructure as well as specialized talent training,” the state already has educational programs focused on semiconductors, embedded systems, electronics, and cybersecurity, some in collaboration with institutions like the University of Arizona, which complement lab design for Industry 4.0, robotics engineering, and additive manufacturing, essential for the aerospace and automotive industries.
“Our goal is to train professionals who can meet the demands of technology companies and contribute to the state’s economic growth,” the educational infrastructure is designed to be bilingual, facilitating graduates’ integration into the international labor market, added the official.
Connectivity
The location of the Development Poles was chosen for its proximity to the Progreso Port, which has export capacity to the United States in almost 48 hours at ports such as Houston, Panama City, Tampa, and others such as Canada, Europe, and South America.
Progreso Port will be connected by sea with Asia in a 25-day route that aims to take advantage of the Interoceanic Corridor, which runs from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos via train in four hours. While the journey to Progreso takes 16 hours, taking advantage of cargo trains on the Maya Train, completing a total of 20 hours in that circuit.
Ernesto Herrera emphasized that the improvements made to the railway infrastructure allow for integration with the Maya Train, optimizing logistics and freight transport between the five states covered by the project. This will no longer be necessary for companies to use the Panama Canal, saving 8,000 km in maritime routes and $1 million in fuel per trip from the United States to Asia.
Airport infrastructure and optimization of air routes reinforce Yucatan’s ability to attract investments in key cities like Houston, one of the main technology centers and semiconductor hubs, with numerous companies, trade centers, and logistics facilities, as well as a port that facilitates international merchandise transit.
Credit Suisse ranked Yucatan as the third entity with the highest nearshoring capture; it also ranks among the five most important technological poles in the country, showing growth in the TICs industry due to talent development and a network of incubators and accelerators.
Among the strategic projects are the construction of two new combined-cycle plants by CFE Merida IV and Valladolid, as well as the expansion of the Cuxtal-Mayakan gas pipeline, which added to clean energies will give Yucatan a capacity of 4,000 MW of energy.
“The state has a robust hydraulic infrastructure that ensures a constant water supply, essential for semiconductor industry and other activities requiring large volumes of this resource,” said the secretary.
Security in Yucatan is another factor that improves its attractiveness to investors, “has one of the lowest delinquency rates in Mexico”.
In this first promotional tour of the Development Poles, three semiconductor companies, one automotive company, and Geoearth have shown interest.
Source: El Economista
