NL Incoming Governor to Focus on Industry Development

Samuel García, incoming Governor of Nuevo Leon – one of Mexico's most important industrial states – has announced a series of ambitious plans to foster the state's economic development through infrastructure and FDI.

During mid-July the incoming governor embarked on a tour to Texas, meeting with different authorities at the state and city levels. Some of his key accomplishments were shared by García via social media.

After its meeting with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, García announced that Abbott had accepted an invitation to visit Nuevo Leon to build together a common foreign trade agenda based on the USMCA. This agenda would allow both regions to compete as a bloc with China and attract investments to supply chains in Nuevo Leon and Texas. García also requested medical and vaccine supplies to cope with the pandemic and closer collaboration with the Texas Department of Transport and the Texas Department of Education. He also suggested the possibility of transporting goods directly from Nuevo Leon to Texas, instead of via Tamaulipas. According to García, Abbot welcomed that Nuevo Leon opened representation offices in Austin. "We are going to set Nuevo Leon as one of the states with the greatest economic, industrial and technological strength of the world," García wrote on Facebook.

In an interview with local media, García explained his plans to take advantage of nearshoring trends caused by rising tensions between the US and China. "A great number of transnational companies located in Asia, due to the Chinese Bill introduced by President Biden, will struggle with costs and will eventually return to North America. Many of them may choose their headquarters to be in Austin, Texas, but not necessarily labor. Monterrey has the best labor force in the country without the costs a facility would have in the US. It will be really attractive for a company to transfer operations to this region. With manufacturing operations in Nuevo Leon, management in Texas and the USMCA in place, there will be a lot of FDI.”

García also met with North America Development Bank and sought financial resources to invest on green initiatives that aim to tackle climate change, some of which include filters in the Cadereyta refinery.

One of the flagship projects of the incoming administration is a new highway between Texas and Nuevo Leon. The Gloria-Colombia highway aims to take advantage of the state's narrow borderline with the US, setting a customs agency in the border town of Colombia. A similar initiative is a fast train between San Antonio and Monterrey, a topic discussed with Texas Department of Transport to be incorporated to its 2050 Master Plan for Texas. "We present the Gloria-Colombia project to the Department of Transport, that takes into account Nuevo Leon as a strategic factor within its 2050 Master Plan," Garcia wrote.

"The purpose of my visit to Texas is for Mayors, the Governor and businesspeople to known that Nuevo Leon is up to the challenge. We have an industrial and supply chain legacy to which companies can arrive to produce and create an economic spillover effect," he also stated on a video. Nuevo Leon is home to KIA, Navistar and Daimler Bus’s manufacturing plants and many other Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive companies. It is also home of some of the largest steel foundries in Mexico.