The Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC) believes that the federal government should not reduce the infrastructure budget for next year, although it also proposed 10 actions to strengthen private investment in this sector.

Luis Méndez, president of the organization, said that they will seek the creation of a one-stop shop to expedite the permits needed for the development of private projects, tax benefits for construction companies, and will also propose the reclassification of the risk premium.

In addition, they will propose training programs to address the labor shortage, so that municipal and state governments can update their development plans so that projects are executed in an orderly manner, establish policies for environmental care, and promote agreements with associations and commercial chains for the development of projects.

In addition to the increase in infrastructure, mainly in logistics, water, housing, energy, education and health, which will attract private resources, agreements will be signed with banks and mediation mechanisms will be implemented to resolve disputes.

“Private investment in infrastructure today faces challenges such as the rule of law, feasibility studies, communication and regulatory barriers, among others. We see that it is vital to use joint ventures to incorporate private capital for the development of new projects,” he said.

Luis Méndez mentioned in a press conference that at the end of the first half of the year, private investment represented 21.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) , while public investment only represented 2.9 percent.

He said that during 2024, the earmarked public investment was approximately 600 billion pesos, although it decreased almost 30% year-on-year, however, to register growth, two or three times more must be invested.

While private resources allocated to infrastructure were close to one billion pesos .

He said that according to the head of SICT, 70% of the tenders that the federal government will launch will be public and the rest by restricted invitation.

“We are waiting for the public tenders to be carried out as we discussed and as the secretary said, it must be clarified that some works are for repairs of the works that were done on the Mayan Train. We will soon meet with Jesús Esteva to update the data and for him to present the infrastructure plan to us,” he said.

Luis Méndez believes that the federal government should not reduce the public budget for infrastructure, given that there are great needs in logistics, water, energy, among others.

However, he commented that there are risks that could affect it, such as debt , the fiscal deficit or social programs, “which are always welcome, and we have talked about the fact that the important thing is not to leave the infrastructure uncovered, because it triggers three or four branches at least,” he indicated.

He said that the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) will be strengthened during the current administration , since it has begun with a different dynamic and is going through large areas of opportunity and challenges, such as the country’s road network, which is in poor condition and causing losses of more than 160 billion pesos.

“SICT is starting off strong, Jesús (Esteva) brings an important dynamic, we have communication with him and we believe that he will take charge of many things that the secretariat was neglecting and that is good news to reestablish many things that were neglected, among them, the investment for maintenance,” he said.

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The current administration has a great challenge in not putting at risk the sustainability of public finances in the medium and long term with the allocation of the budget for railway system projects, considered the Center for Economic and Budgetary Research (CIEP) .

He explained that since the roads and routes already exist throughout the country, the estimated expenditure for the implementation of the projects might not be of the magnitude of the Mayan Train, whose budget represented 94.8% of the resources for railway infrastructure in the last six-year term.

“If public resources are required, it is expected that the next PPEF will allocate a budget to prioritising investment projects for the railway system. One of the challenges will be compliance with the principles of sustainable development and environmental protection without jeopardising the sustainability of public finances in the medium and long term,” he said.

He mentioned that spending on physical investment in the railway system from 2013 to 2023 showed a 39% increase in expenditure. The year with the greatest resources in infrastructure of this type was in 2022 with a total of 397 thousand 474 million pesos (mdp), which represented 29.1% of the total expenditure in this area and 5.16% of the total expenditure.

This figure was mainly due to spending on the Maya Train and priority projects. Cumulative spending on Maya Train infrastructure from 2020 to 2023 represented 94.8% of infrastructure spending in the railway sector and 12.1% of total spending.

Similarly, the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train had resources for 110 thousand 244 million pesos from 2013 to 2024, followed by the Interoceanic Corridor with a total of 17 thousand 78 million pesos from 2014 to 2022 and the expansion of the Lechería-AIFA Suburban Corridor of 9 thousand 189 million pesos from 2020 to 2024. The current expenditure of the railway system showed an increase in its approved expenditure for 2024 of 3.5 times the value of 2023 due to the Manage Airport, Railway and Auxiliary Services Infrastructure program.

CIEP stated that the implementation of new passenger train routes could be an important area of ​​opportunity for the country’s economic development, and will be a priority area for the next six-year term.

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