In an interview with Global Platform, Roberto Novoa, regional president of the Mexican Confederation of Industrial Chambers, and Abraham Rocha Moreno, president of the International Balloon Festival, speak on the factors contributing to growth and globalisation in their local economy. Entrepreneurs are being encouraged to take advantage of the city’s central location, logistics infrastructure and industrial clusters. In addition, natural and historical attractions have created a multitude of opportunities for the development of tourism-related industries.
The state of Guanajuato under this present administration has received more than $11bn in foreign investment. The international aspect is very important in Guanajuato, and in this way our economy can grow. We’ve been growing for the past years above 5%. We have in Guanajuato 13 industrial parks, three industrial cities and seven technological parks, for example [Guanajuato Techno Park]. We have four polytechnic universities, and we have more the 30 universities – both public and private. We are perfectly centred in Mexico, which is right beside the US, the most important country in the world. Our government is always investing. They are building new highways so we can become more connected. The Guanajuato Inland Port is the biggest dry port in Mexico, and it has been very important for the development of Guanajuato.
Clusters Supply
One initiative of the government is to build clusters. For example, we have the automotive cluster and the chemical cluster; we have the fashion cluster; we also have the agrotechnological cluster, just to mention some. What we want from the clusters is to get the knowledge of the companies that belong to the clusters so they can become more efficient and competitive in the region. We have the investments, what we want now is to develop the supply chain for the local entrepreneurs to become suppliers of those big investments. Mr Márquez, when he assumed the governance of the state of Guanajuato, he had a good initiative. He said that the concept should be led by citizens, so that way everything would be more transparent, and we could achieve real growth between government and society. We all work together for a common purpose.
Tourism Attributes
If you have opportunities to do history tourism, you have San Miguel de Allende, also Guanajuato is a World Heritage site, for example. If you are looking for tourism for health, you can find thermal waters and medical resources. If you want to start a new hotel, we need more hotels. Guanajuato is the newest jewel in the country for starting businesses that are related to tourism.
Multifaceted Economy
If you have tourist hotels, for example, you can receive tourists, and you can receive businessmen. We need business, and the businesses need tourists. If you are looking for agriculture, you can make a great business because the restaurant and hotel industries are already in Guanajuato. We are working hard to offer more infrastructure for new business entrepreneurs and to receive more tourism, for example, more roads, more aeroplanes to arrive to Guanajuato. We are giving the momentum so that 20 years into the future, we can say that we arrived in Guanajuato at the moment it started to open the door for the world.
Roberto Novoa : Mexico - Regional President, Guanajuato