Research & Innovation

Mexico has long recognised the importance of research and innovation to the development of a strong and sustainable economy. To date, however, the goal of boosting research and development (R&D) spending to 1% of GDP has remained somewhat distant, with public spending across a variety of programmes having an only limited effect on encouraging the development of new technologies and innovative companies. Facing lower budgets in 2017, the government will be more selective in the projects it sponsors and is looking to incentivise further private investment in R&D. Improvements to the intellectual property framework are set to give foreigner investors additional confidence in this area. The target of spending 1% of GDP on R&D by 2018 looks out of reach; nevertheless, the belt-tightening process is likely to have positive effects on the efficiency of public R&D spending in the future. The increased focus on advanced-stage projects and closer monitoring of outcomes should lead to more demonstrable results. This chapter contains an interview with Guillermo Echeverría Miller, CEO, Vuhl.