Peña says he will accomplish goals

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

BY MAURILIO SOTO
The News


ALFAJAYUCAN, Hidalgo – President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Tuesday that his administration is committed to promoting a comprehensive transformation of Mexico and laying the foundations for future growth, adding that he is committed to carrying out the 266 promises that he made on the campaign trail in 2012.

These promises, Peña Nieto clarified, do not necessarily mean 266 separate projects. “Each one of them means, in many of the cases, carrying out different projects that have an impact on different states throughout the country,” he said, adding that his administration is on track to meet all of these promises.

Peña Nieto’s comments were made during the inauguration of the El Yathé reservoir in Hidalgo’s Alfajayucan municipality, which a government press release said will increase the amount of irrigated farmland in the Mezquital Valley from 6,420 to 9,370 hectares (15,000 to 23,000 acres) — a 45 percent increase — which will benefit 7,000 rural families across the state.

Other projects that Peña Nieto has committed to undertake in Hidalgo include the development of highway and airport infrastructure and plans to improve the state’s public education standards.

Hidalgo Gov. José Francisco Olvera Ruiz said that he fully backs fellow Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) member Peña Nieto’s controversial energy reform proposal, which is currently being debated in Congress. The PRI has changed its proposal over the last two weeks, seeking to even further expand private participation in the country’s oil sector.

“He has the trust and unconditional support of his friends in Hidalgo because the energy reform is a reform that will pave the way to the transformation of the industry without alienating the nation’s (oil) heritage,” Olvera Ruiz said. “With Enrique Peña Nieto we have a direction and the confidence that we’re going down the right path.”

The 2014 federal budget, recently approved by the Chamber of Deputies, will provide the Hidalgo state government with 6.7 billion pesos ($522 million) – 329 million pesos more than this year, which represents a 5.1 percent spending increase.

Peña Nieto said that his administration is clear that all commitments must be fully met, adding that, “We are resolved to do it through laying the foundations that we are and have been developing throughout the course of the first year of my administration so that the future of our country can truly be more promising, more encouraging and, above all, with more attainments within reach of all of its residents.”

The first year of his administration, he went on to say, has been largely dedicated to laying the foundations of structural changes that he said will provide better conditions for economic and social development in Mexico in the years to come.