Sheinbaum to present details of Plan Mexico next week

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that next Monday (Jan 13) she will present details at her daily news conference of the Plan Mexico to boost the economy together with multisector business council CADDER, which was formed at the end of November.

Sheinbaum said at the end of December the government was still working to present the plan in January. The aim is to strengthen the economy "from below" with public, private and mixed investment works under a new scheme that will differ from public-private partnerships, boosting production and reducing imports.

The long-term plan also aims to give continuity to former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador's projects, consolidating what the ruling party Morena calls the second floor of the 4T (fourth transformation) for the country's development.

“What we are proposing is that, unlike the entire neoliberal period, the State must have a participation in the economy as a central axis of planning, and that it should not be confused with us being against private investment or the market. No,” Sheinbaum told her Friday press conference.

“What we do not believe is that the State's only task is to regulate, but that it also has to enter into a planning process and participate in different strategic sectors and, at the same time, promote private investment and the free market in certain areas and, particularly, the defense of the [USMCA] treaty with the United States,” added the president, who also updated progress on the national development plan together with finance undersecretary Edgar Zamora.

National development plan

The national development plan outlines the priorities of the government in the political, economic and social spheres for the period of the current administration that will end in 2030 and must be presented in February by constitutional mandate.

The plan will contain the 100 commitments that the president outlined on her inauguration on October 1 and will be based on four general axes: governance with justice and citizen participation, development with wellbeing and humanism, a “moral economy” and work, and, finally, sustainable development, as outlined by Zamora.

The government will consult with various sectors of society until January 17 and will hold a series of forums to enrich the final document and assign the consequent budget items. "The idea is for the entire population to participate," said the undersecretary.

When asked how much resources will be invested in the national development plan, Sheinbaum responded that this was already established in the budget for 2025, in which nearly 800bn pesos (US$39.2bn) were allocated to public investment.

“The federation’s spending budget has already been approved, there is a total for public investment of about 800bn pesos, and another 800bn pesos for welfare programs, in addition to the budget for education, health and housing,” she said.

Sheinbaum added that the works that will be carried out during her mandate have already been defined and will be presented “little by little.” 

“I will present the 100-day report on the 12th [of January], and from there, I will also present the priority projects we will carry out in 2025,” she said.

“We believe that with the Plan Mexico and the development plan that we have, we will boost economic growth,” said the president. “Now, economic growth is not enough. A country should be measured not only by how much the gross domestic product increases but also by how resources are distributed, how much its citizens earn, what salary they receive, what rights they have, and not only by the major indicators of development or the economy.”

She stressed that her administration is interested in attracting foreign direct investment and the jobs it generates.