Mexico Business Summit

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3 Mexico Business Summit Toluca 2010

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5 Index MEXICO BUSINESS SUMMIT IN TOLUCA WELCOME TO THE MEXICO BUSINESS SUMMIT: TOLUCA Steering Committee 9 Advisory Council 10 2 SESSIONS SUMMARIES : Turning the page after two tough years? A broader basis for Mexico s economy: Looking beyond North America Job creation: Investing to fight poverty 21 Keynote speaker: CARLOS SLIM HELÚ, Honorary Life Chairman, Grupo Carso 2.4 Being part of the new Latin American dynamic Corporate Mexico: Looking at priorities for growth Competition policies for a global economy Embracing our common humanity 35 Keynote Speaker: WILLIAM J. CLINTON, Founder, William J. Clinton Foundation, 42nd President of the United States 2.8 Keynote address FELIPE CALDERÓN HINOJOSA, 39 Constitutional President of the United Mexican States 2.9 Could somebody stand up for tourism, please? Competitive policies for the Agribusiness sector Sustainability strategies for corporate Mexico Give me my IT boom Where are we with the National Infrastructure Plan? 53 5 INDEX

6 2.14 Epochal Mission: The Historical Responsibility of Enlightened Business Leaders 55 Keynote speaker: PROFESSOR ERVIN LASZLO, Chancellor, Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University, Italy 2.15 US-Mexico: Is a true partnership possible? Recovering fast when disaster strikes Expanding SMEs = Jobs + Growth Achieving security: which way towards success in the war against illegality Restoring Mexico s oil production capability 71 Keynote address: JUAN JOSE SUAREZ COPPEL, Director General, Pemex 2.20 Women as a stronger driver for Mexico s prosperity Speaking out as entrepreneurs Are politicians listening? What is happening to Mexico s identity? 79 Keynote Address: CARLOS FUENTES Author, Statesman and Scholar, Mexico 3 CONCLUSIONS 81 4 MEDIA PRESENCE 95 5 PARTICIPANTS SPONSORS FINAL PROGRAM INDEX

7 1 Welcome to the Mexico Business Summit Toluca 2010

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9 Steering Committee Miguel Alemán Velasco President Mexico Business Summit Luis Aranguren Executive President, Arancia Industrial Carlos Bremer CEO, Value Casa de Bolsa Valentín Diez Morodo President, COMCE Francisco Funtanet Mange President, Consejo Coordinador Empresarial Mexiquense Frédéric García CEO, EADS Mexico & President, EADS Telecom Mexico Roberto González Barrera CEO, President and Chairman, Grupo Maseca and Grupo Financiero Banorte Juan Carlos Marroquín Cuesta Executive President, Nestlé Group Mexico Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz Governor, State of Nuevo León Julio A. Millán B. President, CORAZA, Corporación Azteca Enrique Peña Nieto Governor, State of México Carlos Eduardo Represas Chairman, Nestlé Group Mexico Federico Sada González President and CEO, Grupo Corporativo Empresarial ADAS Clemente Serna Alvear President and CEO, Grupo Medcom Pedro Velasco Alvarado Partner Santamarina y Steta Nicolás Zapata Cárdenas President, CORZAC, Corporación Zapata Cárdenas 9 STEERING COMMITTEE

10 Steering Committee Alfonso García Cacho Executive Director, Mexico Business Summit Claude Smadja President, Smadja & Associates Yael Smadja President, Smadja & Associates USA, Inc. Advisory Council Alfredo Achar President, Comex Antonio Chedraui Chairman, Grupo Comercial Chedraui Francisco Garza Zambrano President, México, EUA and Trading Cemex José Natividad González Parás President, Primer Círculo Carlos Ibarra Covarrubias President, Intermoda Fashion Group Stéphane Lauret President, Safran México Félix Martínez Cabrera Presidente, CANILEC Andrés Rozental President, Rozental & Asociados 10 ADVISORY COUNCIL

11 2 Sessions Summaries Toluca 2010

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13 : Turning the page after two tough years? Speakers: Pierre Beaudoin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc., Canada Louis Gallois, Executive President, EADS, France Roberto González Barrera, Chairman, President and CEO, Gruma and Grupo Financiero Banorte, Mexico Gray Newman, Managing Director and Senior Latin American Economist, Global Economics Team, Morgan Stanley, USA Guillermo Ortiz Martínez, Former Governor, Central Bank of Mexico, Mexico Scot Rank, Executive President and Chief Executive Officer, Walmart de México y Centroamérica, Mexico Moderator: Claude Smadja, President, Smadja & Associates, Switzerland Roberto González Mexico is recovering, but will it last? The Mexican economy has bounced back strongly in 2010, but sustaining the growth through 2011 and beyond remains a challenge and will depend on developments in the broader global economy, said participants in the opening session of the Mexico Business Summit. Mexico s economy is projected to grow between 4.5% and 5% in 2010 after sliding 6.5% in 2009 the worst since the Tequila Crisis of the 1990s and being negatively impacted by the world economic downturn and H1N1 viral outbreak. The growth during the first 10 months of 2010 is being driven by exports, but is not necessarily being felt by the average citizen as domestic demand is still soft and investments in sectors such as construction have yet to fully recover. The recovery in Mexico has been based almost exclusively on foreign demand, said Guillermo Ortiz Martínez, former Governor of the Bank of Mexico, who added that the automotive sector, which represents approximately 25% of Mexico s exports, was the most dynamic in this recovery. The export numbers highlighted the best of the surging Mexican economy although Ortiz found good public finances another encouraging sign but he and other participants said that the country still confronted risks that could diminish growth in 2011, when GDP is expected to expand by 3.5% : TURNING THE PAGE AFTER TWO TOUGH YEARS?

14 Among the risks mentioned: a double dip recession something Ortiz believed was unlikely a possible deceleration in exports, lingering weakness in the internal demand and currency wars that could negatively impact the peso. Domestic demand is recovering very slowly, Ortiz said. Scot Rank, Executive President and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart de México y Centroamérica, highlighted the weak demand, but also signs of recovery, during his comments. He said sales at his stores tumbled 7.7% in 2009 and had recovered 4.7% in Rank, like others on the panel, called for reforming the structural problems that prevent Mexico from maintaining high levels of economic growth. He cited three issues pertinent to his sector and the broader Mexican economy: Increasing investment in the domestic economy, fomenting increased competition among suppliers, and public sector actions such as better regulations, improving the rule of law and building new infrastructure. Roberto González Barrera, Chairman of Gruma, also spoke of a similar need for reform, but discarded talk of holding more forums on how the country should proceed. We all know what the reforms are that are required, González said. It s time to make decisions that go beyond political calculations. He called for reforms that would help small businesses, fix the education and judicial systems, develop infrastructure, grow the tax base and abate extreme poverty. We cannot accept extreme poverty 100 years after the Mexican Revolution, he said. Pierre Beaudoin Gray Newman, Managing Director and Senior Latin American Economist with the Global Economics Team at Morgan Stanley, was among those calling for reform, too. And, like his panel colleagues, Newman offered his own recommendations. Topping the list: Human infrastructure, which involves improving education and sending more students to study abroad. The future of a country in the 21st century depends on the knowledge economy, he said, adding that Mexico sends only slightly more students to study in the United States than Vietnam, despite the Asian country having an economy that is 10 percent as large as Mexico s. He also called for investing in the physical economy through infrastructure projects, economic infrastructure, to make the country less dependent on tax income from : TURNING THE PAGE AFTER TWO TOUGH YEARS?

15 Gray Newman and Guillermo Ortíz Pemex, and, lastly, better competition policy to break the power of monopolies, which Newman, said, are not improving the country s economy. A self-described outlier, Newman controversially suggested that Mexico stop obsessing with diversifying its trade away from the United States and take better advantage of its proximity to the world s biggest economy. As for Asia, which some say Mexico should trade with more, he said, Mexico should become more Asia-like by adopting policies that foment strong economic growth. The topic of Mexico s recovery was pertinent and refreshing- for Beaudoin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bombardier Inc., who said of the turning the page theme, We ve already spoken too much about the recession. He, like the other four participants, spoke of the lessons and observations emerging from the global downturn and cited examples from their own companies to reinforce the perceptions. Beaudoin explained that Bombardier, the Canadian conglomerate, survived the recession because of its diversity: Its rail business performed well because of government infrastructure spending, while its aviation division suffered. Aviation has since recovered and the private jet division jets selling for more than $40 million was growing most quickly. High net worth individuals have decided the economy is recovering and they re going to go visit their clients, Beaudoin said. That attitude appears to be more common in the developing world, where the World Bank estimates growth will be 7% this year and 6.8% in That compares favorably to just 2.6% this year and 2.3% in 2010 in developed countries. Another example of the different attitudes in the developing world toward the current economic situation is the willingness to invest in infrastructure so that those countries are ready to surge when the broader global economy recovers. We (in : TURNING THE PAGE AFTER TWO TOUGH YEARS?

16 the developed world) still have both feet on the brakes, waiting for recovery, Beaudoin said. That s not what is happening in developing countries. Louis Gallois, Executive President of EADS. echoed those comments saying that his company will no longer grow due to opportunities in Europe, but rather in the developing world. If there s something to be learned from the crisis it is that dynamism is not in the United States and Europe, but the developing world, Gallois said. Emerging country economies are taking the lead with the United States lagging behind, he added. What unfolds in Mexico next year remains uncertain with the prospect for a sustained recovery depending on external factors and the growth of internal demand. Ortiz ended his comments at the opening session by offering some cautious optimism spoken in a tone of almost wishful thinking. The risk is that we Mexicans will come to agreements on what we want : TURNING THE PAGE AFTER TWO TOUGH YEARS?

17 2.2 A broader basis for Mexico s economy: Looking beyond North America Speakers: Erik Bethel, Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Sinolatin Capital, People s Republic of China Amapola Grijalva, Founding Partner, World Trade Consultants Group and Vice President China Chamber of Commerce and Technology, Mexico Rubén Kraiem, Partner & Chair, Corporate Latin America Practice, Covington & Burling, USA Santrupt Misra, Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Black Business & Director and Head Corporate Human Resources and IT, Aditya Birla Management Corporation, India Carlos Eduardo Represas de A., Chairman of the Board, Nestlé Group Mexico & Chairman of the Advisory Board, Bombardier Mexico Moderated by: Manuel Rivera Raba, Director General, Grupo Editorial Expansión, Mexico The BRIC-countries, over the last couple of decades, have become the most spectacular emerging economies of the world. So, why is Mexico, with 110 million inhabitants, huge amounts of natural resources and a strong industrial sector, not one of them? Carlos Eduardo Represas The second panel discussion of the Mexico Business Summit s first day in Toluca focused exactly on that: the question of why Mexico has been lagging behind in latching on to the dynamics unleashed by the rise of countries such as China and India. The general consensus between the five panel members was that Mexico s market needs to diversify and have a more global outlook on trade. Amapola Grijalva, Vice President of the China Chamber of Commerce and Technology of Mexico, showed how Mexico s exports to China only account for 1.5% of its total foreign trade. Statistics show that other Latin-American countries have a much better balance with the Asian giant. Take Costa Rica: a small country, but one with an enormous trade surplus with China, whereas Mexico actually shows a trade deficit. 17 A BROADER BASIS FOR MEXICO S ECONOMY

18 Reforms So, what is to be done? Panel members generally agreed upon one thing: it is still too hard for foreign capital to enter Mexico. The country needs reform; in education, on the labor market, in the energy market, etcetera. Furthermore, there is a far too one-sided focus on Mexico s trade relations with the United States. Carlos Eduardo Represas, chairman of the board of Nestlé Group Mexico, pointed out that there is much work to be done on a domestic level: We haven t been willing to commit sufficiently to reforms in the fields of energy or the labor market to advance. We should not forget that there is still an enormous potential in our internal market. If we can make this a country of 110 million consumers, we can have remarkable results. One of the key problems of the Mexican economy with regard to foreign investment over the last decades has been its protectionist economy, especially compared to other Latin-American nations. There have been steps taken to open up the Mexican market, most notably by joining the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in But investing in Mexico is still comparatively difficult and there are many bureaucratic challenges to conquer if a business wants to enter the Mexican market. Rubén Kraiem, Partner & Chair of Corporate Latin America Practice at Covington & Burling, said that fear of the penetration of foreign capital is partly to blame. He commented that China showed the same attitude some twenty years ago, but managed to overcome these fears over time. Now, China s growth has no precedent in the rest of the world. In Mexico structural changes, above all in human capital, are necessary, but political reasons keep Mexico lagging behind. Erik Bethel Treaties Mr. Represas also commented that Mexico should not discard its most important trade partner, the United States: Mexico is very much aligned to the U.S., because of geographical and economical reasons. And yet, the country only represents 11% of the import market in the U.S. If we d be able to double that market share, imagine what that would do for the country. He added that the country should be careful in undertaking new foreign ventures. The existing free trade agreements we have are sufficient to make profit. We should try to embark on new ventures within the existing treaties before we make new ones, such as with Brazil. It s too early for that. 18 A BROADER BASIS FOR MEXICO S ECONOMY

19 Still, if Mexico wants to compete with the BRIC-countries, it has to globalize. Take China: over the last 50 years trade between Latin America and the People s Republic has been virtually inexistent, whereas in the last 10 years it has risen from just over 12 billion U.S. dollars to more than 100 billion. Mexico has not been able to gain much from that spectacular increase in trade: exports to China are still much lower than those of other Latin-American countries. According to Sinolatin Capital s CEO Erik Bethel the solution lies in triangulating trade relations between China, the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. is going through a recession caused by deleveraging. People aren t buying anymore; they re paying off their debts. Historically Mexico sees China to some degree as a competitor, but it should be seen as a partner. Mr. Bethel summed up some mind-boggling statistics to underscore the enormous trade possibilities China will present in the near future. The Chinese government is going to move 300 million people to the cities in the next 10 to 15 years. That has enormous implications for the demand in iron ore, oil, steel, the car industry How can Mexico take advantage of this? It is a very rich country with large deposits of copper, gold and silver. And there are plenty of Mexican companies, like Gruma and Bimbo, who moved into China and are doing very well. Technology Rubén Kraiem agreed with Mr. Bethel that Mexico should try to use the advantage of having both a strategic and geographical relationship with the U.S. and being able to aim its economy at a growing demand in BRIC-countries for prime materials and consumer products. How can we enter these markets and get a competitive advantage? China and India compete with each other, Mexico could use this competition to create strategic alliances and have more competitive investments, while using its relationship with the U.S. Erik Bethel, Rubén Kraiem, Santrupt Misra, Amapola Grijalva and Carlos Eduardo Represas 19 A BROADER BASIS FOR MEXICO S ECONOMY

20 Much of the talk about diversification and globalization was focused on China, but India has also been showing great potential and remarkable growth over the last decades. Whereas China became the factory of the world, India became a giant in terms of innovation and technology. So, what can Mexico learn from India? Santrupt Misra, CEO of Indian firm Carbon Black Business, stated that a country doesn t need any foreign capital to kick start the economy. It s all about technology. Many developing countries fall into the trap of focus on low wage production, but there will always be another country that does the same thing. Mr. Misra, who is also the head of Corporate Human Resources and IT of Aditya Birla Management Corporation, said that the Indian government transformed itself into a partner of business, causing tremendous investments to flow into the country. Competitiveness is about learning, he said, Learn from other countries and ask yourself the question: can we bring some of that in? Every country, including Mexico, must decide if it wants to be a participant or a spectator. If you want to be a participant, you can t afford to be reluctant. 20 A BROADER BASIS FOR MEXICO S ECONOMY

21 2.3 Job creation: Investing to fight poverty Keynote address by: Carlos Slim Helú, Honorary Life Chairman, Grupo Carso, Mexico It is clear that good sources of employment, as well as easy access to appropriate education, create human capital, the key that allows any country to compete with the rest of the world and accelerate its development. During a gala dinner that ended the first day of the Mexico Business Summit, Carlos Slim Helú, honorary president for life of Grupo Carso, emphasized that it is necessary and fundamental that young people study, as only then can they offer their best to companies, benefit from more job opportunities and in turn generate the jobs that society requires. Carlos Slim It s important that governments do not regress to traditional policies to extend education. The digitalization of education and the use of new technologies could be a positive force in transforming society through distance learning. Teachers could create good teaching material to be placed on the Internet, where thousands of people could access it and thus broaden their knowledge. Education via the Internet would not only generate a higher number of workers with high-level abilities, but it would also eliminate the pressure to generate cheap employment. We need to contemplate new formulas in education - changes - not more schools, spaces or more teachers. We have to use technology to be able to have distance teaching, virtually, the businessman said. Opting for education instead of starting to work at 15 years of age would be the most effective way to jumpstart the development of a nation. When starting to work, young people would have more knowledge, would be better qualified to serve companies and would probably also retire at a higher age, remaining active professionally for a longer time. 21 JOB CREATION: INVESTING TO FIGHT POVERTY

22 Slim said that 70 years of age would be the perfect age for an employee to end his trajectory in a company. Retiring at age 50 or 60 is a national shame, Mr. Slim stated. He mentioned France as an example, where the age of retirement was raised from 60 to 62, adding that developed countries have great passive contingencies. These countries therefore also have the obligation to deal with retirement issues, since in most parts of the world life expectancy has increased. Nonetheless, Mr. Slim estimated that within the next 15 years the population increase will slow down, which will permit a higher annual income per capita, and will contribute to the development of large middle classes. Another proposition to attack unemployment is the professional formation of people who have not been able to find their way into the labor market. Further education of the unemployed would help them to find alternative jobs, not just in the field in which they are specialized. They should be trained to work in sectors where there are vacancies, and which would offer higher salaries. Facing businessmen and politicians of high international profile, Mr. Slim Helú proposed that NGOs, as well as other institutions, should be more active in the fight to defend human rights and create awareness about environmental problems and insecurity. That way, all stakeholders can collaborate more effectively to resolve problems, not only social ones, but also economic ones, such as unemployment. Carlos Slim and Miguel Alemán The changes mentioned need to be implemented immediately in order to steer the economy back on track after the economic and financial crisis. Social groups should, 22 JOB CREATION: INVESTING TO FIGHT POVERTY

23 together with the government, drive society to create the transformations needed. Mr. Slim also criticized the measures taken by the big economic powers to confront the recession, calling them traditional. Very low interest rates did not favor the most affected economies, but actually caused the opposite reaction, creating fear amongst companies regarding investing. There are very aggressive solutions in terms of monetary policies, the industrialist said. He referred to the measures taken since 2001 by the government of George W. Bush. Even though these measures did not yield the expected results, the same economic policies were maintained by large parts of the world for nine years. Carlos Slim The structural, physical and economic deficit and the high rates of unemployment in economic powers such as the United States, Spain and France is caused by the fact that those countries, as developed as they are, have become a purely technological society, without producing goods and thus damaging their economies more. The entrepreneur emphasized that, as long as those countries cannot export goods with added value, they will keep losing against other industrialized countries. Governments have to assess which are the goods that society requires and identify those that have a high added value. As an example, he mentioned the car industry in the United States. Finally, a good job will always give a level of satisfaction to human beings, making it essential that both the State and the private sector invest in job creation. It s also important to have healthcare, nutrition, cultural efforts, sports, and to have activities with social impact, Mr. Slim noted. 23 JOB CREATION: INVESTING TO FIGHT POVERTY

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25 2.4 Being part of the new Latin American dynamic Opening Address: Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Former President of The Republic of Colombia Speakers: Sergio Augusto De Abreu e Lima Florencio Sobrinho, Ambassador of Brazil to Mexico Rafael Fernández de Castro, Presidential Advisor, International Affairs and Competitiveness, Mexico Jean-Paul Herteman, Chairman of the Executive Board, Safran, France José Luis Prado Becerra, President, PepsiCo Global Baking Innovation Center; President, Gamesa-Quaker, Mexico Guillermo Rishchynski, Ambassador of Canada to Mexico Moderator: Rubén Kraiem, Partner & Chair, Corporate Latin America Practice, Covington & Burling, USA Álvaro Uribe In the last decade, Brazil has shown leadership regarding the economic and political dynamism in Latin America. Speakers like Guillermo Rishchynski, Ambassador of Canada to Mexico, his Brazilian counterpart Sergio De Abreu and José Luis Prado, president of Gamesa-Quaker, confirmed that the southern giant had been the example. The Ambassador of Brazil stated that both Mexico and Brazil were evolving similarly in the eighties. However, Brazil is now the Latin American giant having reached major developments in practically every sector whereas Mexico only has been able to have a stable growth rates. The big difference between both countries, he stated, is that Brazil looked towards the south to consolidate trade while Mexico only focused on the north and in particularly the United States. Furthermore, Brazil is now third on the list of countries attracting foreign direct investment following China and India and thus displacing the United States which is now in fourth place. For such reasons, he underlined the importance of establishing a trade agreement between Mexico and Brazil, the two giants of Latin America. A commercial agreement that will not be a repetition of NAFTA, but one that provides bilateral cooperation in the oil sector, ethanol production, nanotechnology and also biotechnology. Having cre- 25 BEING PART OF THE NEW LATIN AMERICAN DYNAMIC

26 ated this treaty, it would be an opportunity for Latin America to boost its interregional commerce like it has been done successfully in Europe and Asia. Brazil knew how to enter the market with attractive and dynamic strategies, which have been reflected in the level its exports which has more than doubled in just five years, even exceeding Canadian exports. Rafael Fernández de Castro Rafael Fernández de Castro, advisor on international affairs and competitiveness, indicated that the Brazilian government invested 700 billion abroad with Mexico as a principal destination and thereby Mexico obtained a better position to be able to enter the Brazilian market, which normally has been very restricted. The Latin American economies are exceptionally dynamic. The region has a general growth rate of 5.2% with Mexico s expected to reach 4.2%. He clarified that the major part of this dynamism is due to exports, mostly of raw materials: Mexico stimulated this kind of dynamism in the last decade and added that this sector grew by 13% in the last ten years. The integration of Canada into regional trade is another phenomenon within the economic dynamism in Latin America. As explained by Guillermo Rishchynski, this is thanks to the NAFTA agreement through which Canada connected for the first time with a Latin-American country, Mexico and finally Canadian companies started to look towards the south as a great place to invest. The investment of Canada in Latin America exceeded 123 billion dollars, three times the investment of the North American country in Japan, China and India together. With more than 200 Canadian companies of the mining sector present in the region, this relationship is definitely the most important. In regards to security, Colombia is a country that stands out for the measure they took to fight kidnapping and drug trafficking. The former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, indicated that it is necessary to count with a political determination to stop the expansion of violence that is provoked by organized crime. In this matter he congratulated Mexico for following this strategy as opposed to other countries in which the problem has not been recognized nor confronted. At the end of his remarks, Uribe Vélez expressed his support for the recently approved pensions reforms in France which elevate the age of retirement from BEING PART OF THE NEW LATIN AMERICAN DYNAMIC

27 to 62 and stated that Colombia implemented a similar but stricter reform without experiencing the same levels of unrest. The businessman José Luis Prado Becerra, explained that at the beginning of this decade, while Brazil already started to show great indications of development, Colombia was seen as a nation with great potential but with low self esteem and fear. Meanwhile, Mexico was changing the political direction of its government. With the growth of Brazil, a shift took place in the continent, with the economic activity moving to the south. Becerra stressed that Mexico became less attractive to foreign investment, and that this Summit is important in the sense that Mexico can reestablish its attractiveness to entrepreneurs looking to do business in the country. Rubén Kraiem, Álvaro Uribe, Sergio Augusto De Abreu, Rafael Fernández de Castro, José Luis Prado Becerra and Guillermo Rishchynski 27 BEING PART OF THE NEW LATIN AMERICAN DYNAMIC

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29 2.5 Corporate Mexico: Looking at priorities for growth Speakers: Hans-Joachim Kohlsdorf, Vice President, Consejo Ejecutivo de Empresas Globales, Mexico Juan Carlos Marroquín, Executive President, Nestlé Group, Mexico Roberto Newell, Director General, Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad, A.C., (IMCO), Mexico Salomón Presburger Slovik, President, Concamin, Mexico Moderator: Luiz Carlos Ferezin, Managing Director, Accenture, Mexico This brainstorming session on Day 2 of the Summit focused on the results of the taskforce set up by the Mexico Business Summit to provide concrete recommendations on how to boost growth in Mexico. Several private companies have already determined their own growth strategy but how can this be converted into a national strategy? Talent management and a sustainable green image were of key importance during the discussion. Luiz Carlos Ferezin Roberto Newell, Director General of the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO), is convinced that there is a lot to be done in terms of English speaking skills. He emphasized that a better monitoring system should be put in place to determine the level of English and computing skills. Hans Kohlsdorf agreed and added that if Mexico s labor force can improve on these two skills, a lot of the United States outsourcing would no longer go to Asia but would come to Mexico. Besides job creation, the outsourcing would also bring new industrial knowledge to the country. The close economic ties with the United States are not the only indicator of the high potential of Mexico. There exist a lot of areas that require improvement. Salomón Presburger stated that a national development plan should be put in place to strengthen Mexico s market position. 29 CORPORATE MEXICO: LOOKING AT PRIORITIES FOR GROWTH