Mexican President Wraps Up UK Visit with $1bn Oil Deal

AFP, Business Insider, 3/5/2015

Pool/AFP Jonathan Brady

London (AFP) – Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto ended his three-day state visit to Britain on Thursday by overseeing the signing of deals that boost ties between the two countries in energy, including a $1 billion oil agreement.

Under the deal, Britain will provide Mexican energy firms with a $1 billion credit line (908 million euros) for buying British technology.

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Mexico president in crisis is losing support of big business

02/26/15 The Washington Post 

Bernardo Montoya/Reuters

The full-page ad in Mexico’s national newspapers was unusual, if not unprecedented: 20 powerful business groups and think tanks publicly scolding the government for not doing its job. They demanded “conditions necessary to do their work … in total security, in all of the country.” The ad, published last month, called on President Enrique Pena Nieto to “honor your oath to observe and enforce the constitution.” The public criticism by Mexico’s business community underlines the eroding support for Pena Nieto’s administration as he enters the third year of a six-year term. Business leaders are angry over reforms that have increased the tax burden without sparking economic growth, scandals over apparent favoritism and acts of lawlessness that are hurting commerce.

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Mexico and Wal-Mart Launch Initiative to Improve Lives of Farmworkers

By Richard Marosi, 2/12/2015

The Mexican government and Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, have announced steps to improve the lives of the nation’s farmworkers, two months after a Los Angeles Times investigation detailed labor abuses at Mexican agribusinesses that supply major U.S. supermarket chains and restaurants.

Mexico’s secretary of agriculture, Enrique Martinez y Martinez, announced the creation Thursday of a “historic” alliance of produce industry groups that will focus on enforcing wage laws and improving housing, schools and healthcare for the more than 1 million laborers at export farms.

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Why Mexico Is an ‘Undiscovered Opportunity’ for Entrepreneurs

1/15/2015 Inc.Magazine

It was 2008 when Paul Ahlstrom from Alta Ventures chose Mexico as the next big opportunity to create and promote a venture capital industry. It’s been a long time since then. I was able to visit Monterrey, Mexico a couple months back and see a growing startup ecosystem in Mexico that was starting to become noticed. Here’s a brief overview of the last six years, during which Mexico developed into an operational entrepreneurship ecosystem and one of the best options for the entrepreneurs in Latin America.

For a long time the roadmap to success for anyone in Mexico was; go to a private university and get a job in a big company, climb your way up, and end up having a great and secure job. This has changed so radically that today we find that recently graduated engineers are looking to create a startups instead of accepting a job offer in the U.S. In a short time there has been the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that’s growing in every aspect: startups, funding and education. Recent statistics for Mexico show that:

• Each year approximately 118,000 engineers graduate from college
• 80 universities are focusing on engineering as their main area of knowledge
• There are 45 venture capital funds
• There are 100 accelerators and 20 incubators
• 6.3% of people between the ages of 18 and 24 own their company.

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U.S., Mexico Officials Break Ground On San Diego Border Infrastructure Project

KPBS, 12/10/2013

U.S. and Mexico officials joined together on Tuesday near Otay Mesa Road and SR 125  to wave orange flags  and signal construction crews to begin work on a $700 million border infrastructure project. The goal of the new freeway, and eventually a new port of entry, is to cut border wait times and boost cross-border trade.

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As crime ebbs, Juárez coming back to life

The Albuquerque Journal, 12/9/2013

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked recently by family and friends is, “Do you still go to Mexico?”

The person asking the question usually phrases the words in a way that reminds me of being a kid and being asked by an aunt or relative, “You’re not going outside in this kind of weather are you?” Or, “You’re not going to eat that whole bag of chocolates, are you?”

I almost feel like they are scolding me before they hear my response. Their faces usually have an incredulous look on them when I tell them that yes, I go to Mexico and most frequently to Juárez on business.

Today, violent crime in Juárez, especially murders, is a fraction of what it was even two years ago. The daily mass murders, most attributable to the war between drug cartels and Mexican law-enforcement agencies for control of this important portal to the U.S., are down significantly.

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Business leaders say Mexico energy overhaul an urgent necessity

The Global Post, 11/11/2013

Mexico’s powerful CCE business federation urged lawmakers to pass an historic energy overhaul without delay, saying the country “can’t wait any longer.”

If congressional approval is delayed, “we Mexicans will continue to pay more for fuel and raw materials,” the president of the CCE’s Energy Commission, Jaime Williams Quintero, said in a statement.

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