Mexico's President Lopez Obrador announced the $43-billion infrastructure plan to confront recession.
(Photo : Reuters)

The Mexican government and private sector presented on Tuesday their infrastructure plan worth $42.95 billion that is hopefully expected to boost Mexico's economy behind the recession they are facing at the present.

President Lopez Obrador of Mexico told the reporters that around 80 percent of the $42.95 billion infrastructure of the National Infrastructure Plan (PNI) will be funded by the private sectors. The plan includes 147 projects that will be established across the region. Moreover, most of these projects will be funded by the private sector. 

In a report from Mexico Daily News, Obrador said "The plan is basically with private investment. This is important because the participation of the private sector is needed for the economic growth of the country and public investment is important but it functions as seed capital to trigger growth with the participation of the private sector."  

With the huge amount of investment coming from the private sector, it is very evident that the private sectors like the business sectors are willing to help the government in its declining economy. The effort of the business sector was greatly appreciated by Obrador and he felt the full support of businessmen amidst the economic problem they are facing.

Meanwhile, Alfonso Romo, President's Chief-of-Staff, said that the said 147 projects are just the first phase in the PNI. Romo also assures the transparency of the project because he will be reporting every three months to give updates. Moreover, the infrastructure plan is expected to create more jobs and it will help the country to compete with other developing countries. He also said that they have been reviewing the projects along with the government secretaries. However, healthcare and energy projects are not part of PNI Phase 1 but the chief-of-staff assured that there will be programs for it.

Mexico's Finance Secretary Arturo Herrera said on Monday that the country entered into a technical economic recession early this year and the infrastructure projects will help to boost the declining economy of the country as it creates jobs and builds infrastructures that can compete with other developing countries.

Herrera said in a separate statement that if Mexico needs to spend in infrastructure if they want their country to grow. Moreover, according to the President of Business Coordinating Council Carlos Salazar said that phase 1 of PNI Infrastructure will be spent in building highways, energy, tourism, water, and sanitation infrastructure.

As mentioned earlier that the 147 projects will be split evenly across the country. 45 projects will be built in Central Mexico, 49 in the north, while 42 in the south. Salazar added the remaining 11 projects will be built across the country.

This is how the Mexican government plans to spend the $43 billion infrastructure:

  • An amount of $14.5 billion will be spent in the transportation sector to build a highway, rail, airport projects and more. 
  • $12.9 will be spent to boost the country's tourism by allocating the said amount in its 15 projects and most of these will be built in 2020. 
  • $6 billion will be spent in telecommunications.
  • $2.4 billion will be spent on water and sanitation projects

Meanwhile, Salazar also gave a timeline of the completion of the projects. He said:

  • 71 projects will be built in 2020 
  • 41 or more projects will be completed between the years 2021 and 2022
  • 34 projects will be completed in the years 2023 to 2024

Salazar assured that the projects will be completed before the 6-year term of the President ends.