CANCÚN, Q. ROO.- No one denies that in recent years Mexico has been a center of attraction for investments for companies seeking to relocate their production centers or supply chains to consumption centers, following the lessons left by the covid pandemic.
But the country needs to address inefficiencies in infrastructure and logistics operations, which reduce its competitiveness and attractiveness for new industrial investments in the so-called nearshoring , according to leaders of the logistics and transportation sector gathered at the XXV Congress of Intermodal Transportation, organized by the Mexican Association of Intermodal Transportation (AMTI) .
“We have 27 thousand kilometers of roads in the country and only 10% is dedicated to maintenance, while there is nothing under construction. Today our roads are saturated and we experience it every day,” said Leonardo Gómez, executive president of the National Association of Private Transport (ANTP) .
The representative of the large companies that use transportation indicated that it is necessary to increase public investment in infrastructure in view of the great commercial activity that Mexico has with the United States, where there are at least six million land border crossings.
In addition, he identified that the challenges faced in nearshoring include mobility and reliability , legal certainty in the event of theft and blockages, as well as the applicability of the law.
For his part, Iker de Luisa, general director of the Mexican Railway Association (AMF) , said that there is a latent risk of supply chain disruption in the country , given the blockades, thefts or migration problems that reduce the operability and capacity of the railways.
“We are just coming out of one (railway blockade on the road that connects Mexico City with Veracruz), but there is the challenge of working on these cross-cutting issues that concern the government,” he said.
John Willy, president of the Latin American Confederation of Customs Agents (CLAA) , said that in the customs issue, authorities should focus on improving the facilitation of the flow of goods and not only on the issue of national security.
“We have to get people to agree. We have to come together and come up with viable solutions so that the authorities will listen to us,” he said.
Even in the case of military commanders gaining access to strategic positions in Mexican customs, “it has not helped 100%, on the contrary, it has harmed us because we have to teach them,” according to Juan Pablo Pacheco, president of the Mexican Association of Freight Agents (Amacarga) .
Pacheco said that this private organization has been working to achieve greater visibility from the authorities, given the weight that freight forwarders have on supply chains.
On the other hand, Gerardo Tajonar, president of the National Association of Importers and Exporters of the Mexican Republic (ANIERM) , indicated that it is important to pay attention not only to foreign investments that come to the country, but to realize that self-service companies in the United States are looking for Mexican products in light of their country’s policy of closing its borders to Chinese products.
“But they cannot find them because they have disappeared. We have to develop the added value of companies. We must have a national plan for technological development and also certified products from reliable suppliers,” he said.
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