Querétaro has been benefited with the arrival of some of the main Japanese auto-part supplying companies of first and second level and the preference of their managers and CEOs to live in the state capital.
“Queretaro has been chosen by many of the big executives as their place of residence,” said KPMG’s audit partner at the Querétaro office, Demetrio Villa.
In that sense, the demand for education in Querétaro increased to a large extent from schools with bilingual education, in addition to the fact that Japanese institutions are coming to the state.
“There are Japanese schools in Aguascalientes and Irapuato. Irapuato has a Saturday school for Japanese; and there plans to open other Japanese institutions in León and Querétaro, “he said.
The north competes in an important way with the Bajío zone because there is also the presence of assemblers; however, some of the big challenges are the integration of technologies, the innovation of the suppliers and a joint work between Private Initiative and government in terms of supply.
(Photo: eleconomista.com.mx)
Demetrio Villa added that there are plans to develop plants of Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti in the Bajío, to grow their operations in the region.
Although there is a great boom in the sector right now, he considers that the boom in this sector began with Japanese investment.
“The whole Bajío region has been in a boom for several years, first came Aguascalientes with Nissan and for many years it was the number one automotive bastion in the region; then came General Motors to Guanajuato, and later on, the boom starts with Japanese investment in different parts of the Bajío, including Honda” he said.
“Honda started in Guadalajara with a motorcycle factory, and later started producing cars in El Salto, Jalisco. Subsequently, it opened his second plant in Celaya, a much larger complex. Then Mazda arrived in Salamanca and the Japanese industry boom began, the most recent being Toyota, which is located much closer to Querétaro than to Apaseo el Grande” he continued..
Volkswagen installed its engine plant in Silao and General Motors expanded its plant. Nissan has been doing joint ventures with Mercedes and begins to grow in Aguascalientes.
In 2017, Japan invested 805.5 million US dollars in the Bajío: in Aguascalientes 590.5 million, Guanajuato 186.3 million, Querétaro a negative flow of 1.5 million and San Luis Potosí concentrated 30.5 million dollars, according to the records of the Ministry of Economy.
All this development detonated in the Bajío due to its proximity to the Port of Veracruz, Altamira, Lázaro Cárdenas and the railroad to the north.
“The logistics of Bajío is in line for exports. That is the reason, in addition to this, the level of security and the technical talent to attend the operations of the companies is exceptional. Not only is the assembler but all the supply chain, and the whole Tier 1 supply kit that accompanies it,” he explained.
Regarding the development of the supply chain, he said that little by little it has been complemented to integrate a Bajío automotive cluster.
The automotive industry in Mexico produced more than 3 million cars in 2017 and for this year an output of over 4 million units is estimated, a production that is mainly exported to the United States.
Source: eleconomista.com.mx
