In the 16th century, Mexico and China enjoyed a privileged commercial relationship, with the Manila Galleon visiting the country twice a year and bringing Chinese products for local consumption. Five centuries later, China is doing more than just delivering products: it wants to invest in Mexico’s human capital. “In 2013, China announced the One Belt One Road initiative, with the goal of investing in growing economies to encourage the generation of wealth,” says Andrés Díaz, CEO of Mexico and Latin America at China Campus Network. 
According to Díaz, in 2018 the One Belt One Road initiative contemplated a US$1.1 trillion investment in over 900 projects in more than 80 countries, with Mexico playing a key role. “Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Mexico is the natural extension of the One Belt One Road Initiative for Latin America. Given the nationalistic declarations of US President Donald Trump, Mexico and China have begun a rapprochement, with Mexican government officials visiting China and saying the country is ready to receive Chinese investment.” 
To do that, Mexico must improve the one key component it lacks to make the country fully attractive to China: human resources that understand Chinese businesses and entrepreneurial culture. China Campus Network, a program that joins China’s best 28 universities and promotes them by providing scholarships to students and fostering educational exchange between China and other countries, can make a difference, says Díaz. “We have three main objectives: attract FDI, generate innovation and encourage trade through our academic programs.” 
For Sergio Masse, Partner & Marketing Director at China Campus Network, opening an office in Mexico reflects the potential China sees in the country. “In the two years the program has been operating, we have opened nine offices in Asia, Europe and Africa. The office in Mexico will be the first on the American continent.” For the project to be successful, Díaz and Masse have joined forces with business associations that would benefit from trained human resources. “We have mapped Mexico’s needs in terms of human capital and we have developed more accurate academic programs. This has helped us to get more business partners on board,” says Díaz. Associations like the Confederation of National Chambers on Trade, Services and Tourism (CONCANACO) and the Mexican National Farmers’ Association (CNC) have already become trusted partners. “With CONCANACO, we are doing a trade promotion program and we created a degree on cross-border e-commerce. With CNC, we are also promoting a program that intends to invite college-age students from rural communities to study in China so they can later implement projects intended to modernize and automatize agricultural practices,” adds Díaz. 
Scholarships provided by universities and the Chinese government through China Campus Network are part of an investment in the country, explains Díaz. “The Chinese government is willing to invest in Mexico because it wants to have trained human resources that can make their companies even more successful.” Chinese companies struggle to find local human talent that can understand their business culture; that is why they tend to have a very high ratio of Chinese employees rather than local employees. “On average, 75 percent of a Chinese company’s employees are Chinese, while only 25 percent are local workers. China wants to reverse this percentage,” says Masse.
Díaz says China Campus Network is just one part of the Chinese effort to achieve a change in mentality in how to do business with China. “If you google how to do business in China, you will not find a simple guide. No one will tell you what paperwork you need, where to register your company or who can distribute your product. We want to change that.” The group has created a certification that will help SMEs sell their products in China. “In 2017, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, came to Mexico and signed an agreement with the Ministry of Economy. It specified that SMEs would be trained on how to sell their products to the Chinese market on the Alibaba platform,” says Díaz. China Campus Network is also trying to boost this agreement. “Some of the students we are taking to China will participate in the Global E-commerce Talent (GET) program created by Alibaba and will receive a certification from the platform. We want to bring the program to Mexico, so Mexican entrepreneurs can participate in the program and get the certification without having to go to China.”