Strengthening of Mexico-United States ties continues: AmCham Monterrey Chapter

Nuevo León

By Perla Eunice

In the first two months of 2021, Mexico recovered its position as the first commercial partner of the United States, with an exchange equivalent to 97,000 million dollars. "At AmCham, we seek to strengthen binational integration to further strengthen this commercial exchange, but also our bridges of dialogue and cooperation," said Francisco Pontón, President of the Monterrey Chapter of the American Chamber / Mexico. 

AmCham's Monterrey Chapter represents more than 320 companies of various sizes and sectors incorporated into global value chains, particularly with the United States; These contribute to promoting education, entrepreneurship and work. "Currently, the more than 1,000 companies that make up AmCham nationwide generate more than eight million direct and indirect jobs, and we represent 21% of GDP and 20% of private sector investment," reported Pontón.

He also mentioned that half of the foreign investment in Mexico comes from the United States and, for more than 20 years, 9.5% of this investment has been destined for Nuevo León. "At the Monterrey Chapter, we value this binational integration as a source of opportunities for our communities, but also for our partners, as we promote virtuous circles by sharing our experience, knowledge and good practices," he highlighted.

Within the entity there are 3,671 US companies, “which makes it the second Mexican entity with the highest number of companies from the United States; in total, they generate an average of 7.4% of the Foreign Direct Investment in the state ”, said the president. The main sector that receives this investment is the automotive industry in subsectors such as the manufacture of transport equipment, auto parts, light vehicles and heavy vehicles.

 

STRENGTHS OF NUEVO LEÓN

Among the competitive advantages of the state, the president of the Monterrey Chapter pointed out its great export capacity: from January to October 2020, its manufacturing exports represented 37.8 billion dollars, that is, 9.1% of the national total. In addition, it has highly competitive sectors: in November 2020, the economic benefit for the state from exports to the United States was 2,876.8 million dollars. The main export sectors were the following:

• Transportation equipment, with 948.8 million dollars.
• Electric generation equipment, with 463.5 million dollars.
• Home appliances, with $ 322 million.
• Computing, communication and navigation, with 310.8 million dollars.

On the other hand, he pointed to the role of the state as a provider of skilled labor. High-level educational institutions contribute to the availability of qualified personnel and manpower; which has allowed the creation of engineering, design and innovation centers in the state, by large US and global companies.

“For example, Whirlpool, in a collaboration with Tec de Monterrey, has allowed students to get closer to the company and enhance their skills through professional internships. Likewise, the company has promoted the Institute of Home Science, an information hub created with the purpose of teaching consumers to obtain the best possible results from their electrical appliances ”, he explained.

 

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

From the manager's perspective, the current labor panorama shows three main problems: skills gap, new technologies and abilities, and insufficient budgets to create the necessary impact and strengthen Mexican human capital.

“The pandemic accelerated the trends of flexibility and change in the work environment, but also the use of technology; for example, in production and supply chains. In this context, some of the areas of opportunity that we see for Mexico are automation, innovation and technology and promoting the labor market ”.

For this reason, the Human Capital and Labor Affairs Committee of AmCham promotes strategies for the development of new skills demanded by local, national and North American industries. Its proposals in the field include establishing a permanent, deep and specific conversation between companies and decision makers about professional vocation, and a closer communication with young people. 

In that sense, they propose to have recruitment processes without gender: review procedures and make them gender sensitive / inclusive . In addition, fostering a community of practice to offer supply chains with human capital management, and mentoring or coaching companies in the same sector that are not so sophisticated.

"We have to understand that the only constant is change and the viability of companies will depend on the ability we have to learn from experience and react agile, assertive and timely, over and over again," he added.

From his perspective, Nuevo León has great opportunities to continue its growth. "The T-MEC is a window of opportunity to continue promoting these strengths and, at AmCham, we are committed to continue adding to consolidate our state as a reliable and safe destination for investment."

AmCham Chapter Monterrey celebrated 47 years of presence in the entity on March 31, 2021 with the Annual Assembly of Members, where Francisco Pontón renewed his leadership as president of the Chapter. 

“It is a pride to share that these years have been marked by the commitment of our partners to forge a strong and dynamic binational business community, key to triggering the competitiveness and development of the state of Nuevo León. Our Chamber not only represents companies, but agents of positive social change, enhancing their impact through unity ”, he stressed.

As part of the activities carried out during the pandemic, they launched a toolkit with practical advice for SMEs, a reversible factoring scheme, and supported various initiatives to consolidate support networks among the private sector; in addition to conducting more than 250 webinars, nationwide, with reliable and timely information.

Finally, he invited those interested to approach AmCham to be better prepared, implement work formats, focus on the constant development of talent, innovate processes and promote the use of new technologies to identify work alternatives; all in the company of the Chamber.