Mexico

In November 2017 Grupo Modelo – part of global brewing giant AB InBev and Mexico’s largest beer maker – announced plans for its eighth brewery. The proposed project, to be developed in the municipality of Apan, is by far the biggest private investment ever to be made in Hidalgo, at MXN14bn ($756.6m).

Of all the sectors deemed as strategic for Hidalgo’s economic development, chemicals and pharmaceuticals are perhaps the least explored territory. Unlike the well-known centres of Guadalajara and Cuernavaca, Hidalgo did not have any pharmaceutical laboratories, for example, when the current government took office in 2016.

For decades the state government has prioritised the development of the automotive industry, and these efforts have led to it becoming a vital sector for Guanajuato. As such, it is now recognised as one of Mexico’s great economic success stories. “Until 1991, when General Motors arrived in Silao, the state’s economy was mainly based on...

Mexico’s IT services and software sector reported a compound annual growth rate of 12% between 2010 and 2016, with its market value estimated at $11.3bn in 2016, according to ProMéxico, the country’s investment and export promotion agency. In 2017 Mexico placed 13th out of 65 countries in terms of the best locations to provide IT, business...

Economic expansion in the north-central state of Guanajuato outpaced that of the nation as a whole in 2017, registering GDP growth of 4.5%, compared with Mexico’s rate of 2.1%. Overall, Guanajuato reported the sixth-highest increase in per capita GDP of any state in Mexico between 2013 and 2016. The state’s per capita GDP increased by 5% over...

Several initiatives are under way to transform Mexico’s major metropolitan areas into so-called smart cities, combining technology and government policy to create better economies, a cleaner environment and to improve mobility and governance in order to enhance the quality of life of their inhabitants. Among the benefits are greater efficiency...