The private sector needs to be more proactive and participative to stimulate economic activity and speed up the construction of public infrastructure projects in Mexico, local financial group IXE analyst Lucía Martín told BNamericas.
On October 8, President Felipe Calderón announced an emergency plan to protect the country's economy from the global financial crisis by stimulating growth and employment.
The plan involves investing 53.1bn pesos (US$4.02bn) to strengthen the sectors that act as drivers of economic growth, such as public infrastructure, and is expected to result in GDP growth of roughly 1%.
These resources will be invested in addition to the 2007-12 US$50bn/y national infrastructure plan PNI, whose development has been negatively affected by the global financial crisis.
"Currently, the federal government carries out the entire process that precedes the issuing of a tender, from project identification to feasibility and environmental impact studies," Martín said.
"But the private sector can also look for projects, carry out studies and participate in the process involved in the construction of any project. That would speed up the construction of infrastructure in the country," she added.
The analyst said Calderón's emergency plan includes several important modifications to encourage the private sector to participate more in public works projects.
"These include direct awarding of projects, liberation of rights of way and measures to avoid unjustified and irrelevant lawsuits. Additionally, companies are allowed to carry out their own prefeasibility and environmental studies, and permitted to present their own infrastructure projects," Martín added.
"The risks that the federal government identified when it launched the PNI have materialized, and they have prevented the expenditure of resources for infrastructure projects," she added.
These risks include an outdated, bureaucratic legal framework and lack of environmental impact studies.
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