Software associations bill US$104mn over 2yrs

The first 12 software associations created in Mexico have accumulated sales of US$104mn during their first two years of existence, authorities and companies revealed, as reported by newspaper Reforma. This year, the associations hope to see that figure rise to US$210mn due to having more members that operate in line with world-class standards. The first software clusters were started up in 2002 as an initiative driven by federal and state governments, the private sector and universities. The idea is that these regional clusters will compete better for big national and international contracts. Mexico has repeatedly said it plans to see software exports of US$5bn by 2013, reduce software imports and generate 120,000 highly skilled employees, all with the help of the government's software export promotion agency Prosoft. Software imports currently account for 80% of national consumption. In Mexico, 85% of software companies are SMEs, 5% have more than 300 employees and only 3% have more than five years experience. The 225 companies that currently participate in these clusters are concentrated in the Aguascalientes, Baja California, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Nuevo León, Puebla, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco and Yucatán states. This year the states of Tamaulipas, México state, Durango, Chihuahua and the Federal District, are due to come on board. Jalisco state has specialized in the design of semiconductors, mobile applications and electronics for the automobile industry. In the Mérida city cluster in Yucatán state, four of the 25 members have achieved 30% of their sales from exports, one example being Aspel Desarrollos. As a cluster they sealed a contract with US company Honneywell to build a control simulator for its electronic systems. Aguascalientes state also has 25 companies and believes it has a potential sales capacity of up to US$500mn. Nuevo León state is building an industrial estate for biotechnology laboratories and telecommunications companies.