THE NEWS
NEW YORK – A new middle class is growing and consolidating in central Mexico thanks to the industrial drive that has been fomented by high-tech foreign firm investments, like automotive companies, according to a New York Times report on Tuesday.
A study from Guanajuato that was published in Tuesday’s edition indicated that, “Mexico is finally attracting industries in a way that experts believe could create long-term prosperity.”
It says that as dozens of companies have invested in the central area of the country, creating industrial parks around highways, “a new Mexico has begun to emerge” in the form of middle class neighborhoods where there was once only agricultural land.
It points out that central Mexico is different from the “popular American conception” of maquiladoras and drug violence on the border.
The question, according to the report, is whether Mexico is going to be able to meet the regional educated labor demand required to boost itself into “the club of developed nations.”
The article did point out that the automotive industry in central Mexico has shown notable progress.
The region has actually surpassed Detroit in automotive growth — in fact it is now able to boast a larger automotive workforce that the whole U.S. Mid-West.
Now 40 percent of all automotive industry jobs in North America are in Mexico, an increase on 27 percent in 2000.
It says that this percentage has increased in an accelerated manner, especially in the central state of Guanajuato, where the state government offers attractive investment incentives such as covering the cost of mandatory employment exams, employee training, as well as key infrastructure that automotive companies need.
Even though the bulk of the jobs pay about 45 pesos an hour — a little over half of U.S. minimum wage — the rise in incomes in the region has had very positive effects on the local economy.
The report details the success story of a tow-truck driver who was sent to Romania for engineer training. He now works for Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli, making $27,000 a year and has been able to buy a house and obtain credit to start a gourmet cafe in a nearby town.
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