Mexico’s third infra package release rests in govt hands

The third package of projects under Mexico’s 2020-24 national infrastructure program (PNI) has been ready for months, but its release depends on the government’s agenda, according to a private sector leader. 

“When is it going to be announced? When the government wants to announce it,” José Medina Mora, head of one of Mexico’s biggest private sector business associations, Comparmex, said Monday during an event. 

“From the point of view of the private sector, in the first two packages that were announced in previous years, we proposed many more investment projects than were announced. The government is the one who has selected which of those projects have been given priority for licenses to be carried out,” he said. 

The third package has been expected since early 2021, but feuds between President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and the private sector delayed its release last year. 

But this year, Francisco Cervantes, the new head of Mexico’s biggest private sector confederation CCE – which comprises 14 associations, including Comparmex – vowed to improve relations with the government. Cervantes was named CCE president on March 2.

Although the content of the third package has not been made public, Rogelio Mauricio Rivero, head of the infrastructure, communications and transport ministry’s highway development unit, said last July that the package could include up to 15 communications and transportation projects involving 70bn pesos (currently US$3.55bn).