The company's Mexico City headquarters.
The company that installed the first electric lighting on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City is still here today, and very bullish on Mexico.
The international engineering and electronics congolomerate Siemens arrived here in 1894, the year those electric lights were installed, and judging by an interview published today by Milenio, the company is very optimistic about its Mexican operations.
The director general for Siemens Mesoamérica, which also takes in Central America and the Caribbean, says she has never seen Mexico in a better position, due to the structural reforms ushered in over the past 20 months.
“What is really exciting is that these reforms and these changes will make Mexico much more competitive,” says Louise Goeser.
Furthermore, she sees Mexico becoming one of three global manufacturing centers. “Mexico will be considered, from this company’s perspective, one of the three great manufacturing centers of the world, which will include Germany, China and Mexico.” It will also become a global center for research and development, Goeser predicts.
Another of the early Siemens projects was the construction of the Necaxa hydroelectric plant in Puebla in 1903, which is still in operation today and was the first such plant in Mexico. Today, Siemens is still in the business of building and maintaining power plants, and much more besides.
Its medical division provides high-tech imaging equipment while its industrial division provides automation equipment to customers such as the Volkswagen factory in Puebla. Siemens also builds infrastructure equipment such as switchgear for electrical power systems and even parcel handling equipment, which it provided at Federal Express’s new hub in Mexico City.
The firm’s sales in the region last year totaled nearly US $1.4 billion, but Goeser sees that growing fast. The company’s president and CEO, Joe Kaeser, was in Mexico recently and said he hoped to see its business double here by 2020.
But Goeser has more ambitious plans, and expects to reach that goal in the next two or three years. “We’ve never seen so many interested clients as we are seeing now. We have two full pages of potential opportunities in electrical plants alone. And we’re very excited.”
She said pipeline requirements could also mean more business for Siemens, along with the high-speed train between Mexico City and Querétaro. And every time a new oil well is drilled or drilling platform installed there’s a need for electricity, and more work for Siemens.
Before joining the Germany-based firm, Goeser ran the Ford Motor Company’s Mexican division for four years, where she oversaw the company’s investment of $3 billion in just one year, possibly the biggest industrial investment in the country’s history.
She chose to remain in Mexico, believing it has “marvelous opportunities.”
“I love my career and I love what is happening in this country and I want to continue to contribute.”
No comments:
Post a Comment