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 Introduction - Alliances & Investments - Expanding frontiers - Free market -
Telecom and transport - Banking - Energy sector - Tourism - States of Opportunities -
Agro Industry - Multinationals - Industrial States 
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Interview with
Lic. Vicente Yañez Soyoa,
President of CANACINTRA
(Nacional Chamber of the Manufacturing Industry)
February 14th, 2000
Website : www.canacintra.org.mx
| Could you give us a brief historical background on CANACINTRA?
CANACINTRA was founded on December the 5th, 1941, grouping mostly small and medium size industries. Today 97% of our members belong to one of these two categories, and we think about them all as great entrepreneurs leading small companies. We try, in this chamber, to provide the managing tools required for small industries to grow while still being competitive, having in mind that in a not so far away future, most of the fights will take place in a global arena. Our offices are present in all of the most important Mexican cities and right now we have 114 special sections which handle each of the various sectors in which the industrial activity is divided, so we can take care of chocolate and footwear producers’ necessities differently and with very specific and specialized methods. We have also certain commissions that we use to gather and handle the information that comes from official sources. So the work is divided in three. Our regional representations give us all the information related to the very specific geographical conditions in which a company or industry is working out its growing possibilities, our sectorial sections tell us about the typical characteristics of a precise activity, and the commissions make us aware of some official regulations that are common to all the industrial sector. Being organized like this allows us to have a very general perspective of the Mexican industrial community and enables us to react accurately to the precise needs of our members. The mission of the chamber is to represent and protect the general interests of our members, and we do not attend to a member’s particular matters unless it will contribute to everyone’s welfare. Members are here because they want to and there is no longer a law that obliges them to sign with us as in the past, when it was mandatory to belong to CANACINTRA. At that time the chamber was made up of 51 thousand industries, today we have 32 thousand industries that are convinced that making part of the chamber is a good thing. For us the future is clear in terms of having our priorities firmly established as far as the protection of our common interests is concerned.
Could you give us an overview of the developments of the manufacturer industry in the last years and of its contributions to the development of Mexico specially after 94?
In the 70’s, while all the rest of the world was starting to bet on free-trade, Mexico decided to close its frontiers and maintain an industrial development under a model of closed economy where everybody competed for the same market respecting the same rules. At that time Mexico wanted to be completely autosuficient and everything was manufactured in national industries mostly owned by the government. Then globalization came and the 75 years old economic cloistering disappeared in just a few years. We submitted late to this natural worldwide phenomenon, but we have been taking big and firm steps towards the global arena since then. Mexico passed from being a petroleum exporter to be a very successful multi-exporter, given that today over 90% of its total exports come from the manufacturer industry. The question now is: how are we going to handle that success in order to bring the benefits down to the pockets of the working class? The new free-trade treaty with Europe will bring Mexico to the position of being the country with the largest number of treaties of this kind signed all over the world, and we will have to figure out the way of taking advantage of this diversification. As far as the manufacturer industry is concerned, the great success has been putting it in private hands.
What is the percentage of "maquiladoras" in the manufacturer sector, and what is their role?
The "maquiladoras" were established within certain companies to accomplish export-only programs, taking advantage of some taxing privileges that were specially designated for products that were not meant to stay in the country. Mexico provides to "maquiladoras" only the 2.5% of the raw materials so with a little bit more of good work we can raise that percentage. The "maquiladoras" have enormously raised employment rates in some regions of the Republic and represent a serious method of carrying out a very promising international trade of manufactured goods.
What do you think is going to be the impact on your sector of the free-trade agreement with the EU compared to the NAFTA experience?
I think the main theme here is the diversification of markets; no one wants to have all possibilities stocked in just one basket. At the one hand, that treaty will attract a lot of European investors to Mexico that will be mostly trying to penetrate the North American market from here. Europeans will establish their manufacturer industries and they will be producing here in order to comply to the rules that NAFTA established six years ago, bringing consequentially more and better paid jobs and improved technology. In the other hand, some Mexican products will not be able to compete in the European market because of many reasons, but some others will be competing very successfully. So either way, Mexico will be highly benefited.
What could you say are still gray areas where the government will have to work on to make Mexico even more attractive for investors?
Mexico needs to change some basic policies in order to take full advantage of all the good work that has been done as far as establishing free-trade treaties around the world is concerned. We have to have a long term vision if we want to compete worldwide. | Until now, all plans were made to work only for six years, and every change of executive administration meant a full change of commercial and trading strategies. It is tremendously important to have in mind that a short term vision will take us to commit very serious mistakes, so we have to work arduously finding out the way to determine where we want to be 15 years time as a country, and no one in Mexico is excluded from this task. We need state policies grounded mostly on nationalism to project us to a long term future, no matter who is in charge. We have been improving our political and judicial systems throughout democracy among other things, in order to guarantee justice and security for all, but there is still a long way to go if we want to have a real state were the rule of law is a fact and where laws and regulations are not to be interpreted but to be put into effect. The Mexican Federal Labor Law was made when our frontiers were closed, and some deep modifications have to be done to it because if we want to compete with some of the most advanced producers in the world, the least we can do is to make sure that our labor force is working in the same conditions as everybody else. The name of the game here is flexibility. Our laws have to allow all industries to adapt themselves to the new outcoming market trains. We have to re-establish all the financial system because today it is not providing the capital needed to grow the way we want to, and it is known that no country will ever be economically viable without a healthy financial system. We have to stop with the continuous fiscal miscellaneous resolutions that change the levying perspective of the country almost every day. It is not possible to continue wasting our energies trying to submit to some very unstable fiscal policies instead of spending those energies generating the jobs Mexico needs. Mexico needs an integral and permanent levying regulation that includes every single Mexican that is able to pay taxes, and we have been asking this for years. Finally we have to improve the capacities of our laboring force throughout a strong education program that would include all the training required to enable workers to handle all kinds of technologies. All of this changes and adjustments must make part of an integral package that will help all small and medium size enterprises to grow and that will support the consolidation of big ones. Mexico needs to generate 1.2 million jobs a year and right now we are generating only 800 thousand jobs formally registered, so the main objective must be to create more and better enterprises that will create more and better jobs, bringing consequently a better distribution of the income. All of this is part of our permanent agenda, we are working every day to accomplish our goals, we think that we are heading to the right direction, and we hope that the next government will helps us to do so.
With all this changes and new opportunities where do you see the Mexican economy in three years, specifically your sector?
If we manage to make concrete all this changes and all the re-structuring that we are ought to carry out, in four years our inflation will be similar as the one registered in the US or Canada, and the same will happen with banking interests. We will be creating the one million jobs required and Mexico will be growing at a rate of 5% annually, with a "peso" fluctuation that will submit to the laws of free market. Today there are no elements that could take the country to a crisis and we have the opportunity to change administration tidily and clean. The December of 1994 crisis was the deepest ever had and it took us Mexicans only two years to stabilize the economy, so if we can transform that healing factor into a growing factor all our goals will be attained.
Can you tell us about your background and about your biggest achievement as President of CANACINTRA?
I studied business administration and started working in a family business since I was 18 years old. My family’s education philosophy was that nothing can be obtained if you do not consecrate a sufficient effort to obtain it. I realized while working with my family that even if your company is working correctly, if the environment is not adequate for a good development you will not be able to attain the levels you deserve. So, along with my father who founded CANACINTRA, I started to watch over the common interests of the industrial sector. I believe that I have a moral mortgage with my country and the way of paying back is being here, contributing with my time and experience to change things outside, making them better and helping to build a better country. When the time comes for my child to ask me about the things I have done for Mexico, I will be able to tell him that I have done this and that and that now it is his turn to do so.
What is your final message for our readers?
We have to do our best in order to inherit a better world to our children. The industrial sector has made a lot but has also taken a lot in terms of natural resources and energy consumption. We have to think about all next generations and the welfare of the people. Work for your company, but operate also in the outside for growing conditions to come naturally.
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© World INvestment NEws, 2000.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Mexico published in Forbes Global.
July 3rd 2000 Issue.
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MEXICO
