BRICS PROCESS China Investing in Mexican Infrastructure Projects

BRICS PROCESS

China Investing in Mexican Infrastructure Projects

Sept. 7 (LPAC)--Chinese construction, rail, and related companies
are investing in key projects in what is being called Mexico's
Economic Corridor of the North, involving the states of Nayarit
on the Pacific coast and Chihuahua which borders the U.S.
        During last year's visit to Mexico by Chinese President Xi
Jinping, the two governments signed a Comprehensive Strategic
Alliance, and China is looking at a number of investment
possibilities, including plans to invest $35 billion in Mexico's
energy sector, {El Universal} reported Aug. 8.
        Two major projects are about to get underway shortly, thanks
to the organizing of Roberto Sandoval, Governor of Nayarit, and
Cesar Duarte, Governor of Chihuahua. One is a new deep-water port
in Nayarit, and the other, a rail link from that port, through
Chihuahua and into the U.S. state of New Mexico, with its
terminus at the Santa Teresa port of entry.
        Sandoval and Duarte were in China in late July and early
August to secure financing for what Sandoval calls the
"China-Nayarit-Chihuahua-U.S." development corridor. While these
are private projects, the Mexican government must grant
authorization for them to proceed. It should also be noted that
the Chinese involvement in the construction of an inter-oceanic
canal through Nicaragua is also technically a private sector
project, run through the Chinese company HKND.
        Gov. Duarte announced Sept. 5 that China's ambassador to
Mexico, Qiu Xiaoqi, had notified him that the Development Bank of
China will provide $1 billion to finance the Nayarit-Chihuahua-
New Mexico rail project. Railroad construction company, China
Hyway Group, Ltd., owned by the Development Bank, will partner
with other Chinese firms and begin construction before the end of
this year.
        Gov. Sandoval, who has made repeated trips to China,
announced in late May that several large Chinese private-sector
companies will invest $3.5 billion to build "Puerto Nayarit" over
the next three years which, when completed, will be the largest
deep-water port in Ibero-America. It is expected to generate
25,000 jobs in the state and spark a major economic boom, as
well. The port will be the only one in North and Central America
able to dock large container-bearing ships.
        According to www.nayarit.gob.mx, in three months Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto and Chinese President Xi Jinping
will lay the first stones of what will be "the first project of
the Mexico-China Alliance." [crr]