Mexican Entrepreneurship

In the US, we often think that stating your opinion is a right of all people all over the world.  Well, that, for many years, has been risky in many parts of the world.  Imagine a place where you start your own business, you build it up and then the government, for an entirely unrelated reason, either closes it down or creates rules making your progress impossible.  For many years, this has been a fact in Mexico and many other places.  It was only since 2000, when Vicente Fox became President that true freedom appeared.  It is only now, eight years later, when people are just beginning to have confidence in their government.  Why, what happened?

 

NAFTA happened.  NAFTA forced the Mexican government to be stable or lose all the new opportunities that it has presented.  Failure to remain stable including losing many economic opportunities, there are thresholds on economics, output, human rights and environment that need to be met.  This is one of the reasons that wealth along the border is occurring.  Stability brings wealth, and wealth brings more stability.  Sure, there are issues with drugs and violence.  However, these are mainly caused by success and new wealth.  Immigration has been an issue, but as we will see over the next few years, immigration will slow down.  Immigration was up 450% from the mid 80’s to late 90’s.  This was mainly because of the failure of the Mexican agricultural sector to modernize.  The agriculture industry in Mexico cratered and people needed to go somewhere for work.  That somewhere ended up being the US.  Also, as multi-nationals continue to purchase Mexican farms we are seeing a rapid and success re-emergence of the agricultural industry in Mexico.

 

On the Wealth Along the Border radio show on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marsound Thursday, Beto Pallares of El Paso economic development group called TransPecos/El Paso Regional Center of Innovation http://www.tpeprcic.org/about_rcic.php.  They have a number of programs that help entrepreneurs in their region.  What needs to be stressed is how the people of the region, many of Mexican decent, finally believe in their country and the new opportunities in front of them. These are exciting times for this region.  As Mexico is producing more engineers than the US, these people will be the ones creating new innovation and building businesses.  It is up to the rest of the US to focus on this region, nurture these opportunities and make them happen for everyone’s good cause.

 

We want to applaud the work that Beto and his team are doing and recognize that things are changing along the border.  This is the fastest growing region for both countries.  Instead of the bitterness is there between the people of the US and Mexico, maybe it is time to look in the mirror get involved with the success which is occurring there.

Wealth along US-Mexico Border Show 2

Tomorrow’s radio show with Michael Orshan and guest John Brown should prove to be fascinating.

John is currently employed by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce as the Manager of Business Development where he develops programs and services for chamber members.

Previously, John has earned more than 25 years in the international logistics field and before that, he worked for seven years in the accounting/auditing industry.

This week’s show should be eye-opening and thought provoking. If you’d like to listen to the show and submit questions, just click here.

Mike will be live at 9 pm Central time on Thursday, May 15th. Hope you can make it.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE PREVIOUS SHOW.

Wealth along the US-Mexico Border

When most people in our area (Nashville, TN) think of the US-Mexican border, they envision a long, desolate scene with immigrants running to get across. Some think of narcotics traffic northward, and still others think about booming cities and Cinco de Mayo.

However, most don’t know about the border and the potential for growth between the two nations. Did you know that along the almost 12 thousand miles of border between the US and Mexico, there are approximately 12 million residents? Did you know that the aerospace and technological industries have approximately 1 million people working in them in Mexico alone? Did you know that Mexico is the United States’ second largest trading partner? Did you know that the United States is Mexico’s largest trading partner? Did you know that approximately $1 Billion per day is being traded across the border? Yes, ONE BILLION DOLLARS

With such a huge trade occurring between the two countries, one might be incredulous that it could be taking place. But Deputy Consul of Mexico in Tucson, Arizona Bernardo Mendez-Lugo explains how President Bush and President Calderon are focusing on security a top issue.

“Not only the migration and other issues of security,” Mendez said during a radio interview last week, “there are problems with Narcotics and the drug trafficking, but also Mexico is very worried about the arms traffic into Mexico, and I think this is one of the issues that President Calderon was pointing out in this recent meeting of the Tri-National prosperity and security partnership in New Orleans with President Bush and Prime-Minister Harper.”

Mendez-Lugo acknowledges that traffic of illegal drugs and people is an issue, but at the same time, he believes that there needs to be better control at ports of commerce and at Customs stations.

“We can do more in industry and international trade and the facilitation of trade with better ports of entry and better technology for the border system for customs,” Mendez-Lugo told host Mike Orshan.
So why are we, as Americans sending Billions of dollars overseas to China when Mexico is a closer and equally available trading partner?

Listen to the whole interview here.