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What does Bancomext do
abroad through its international offices?
We represent the demand
side -- we have contact with importers from Mexico. Our Bancomext
offices in Mexico have the contact with
exporters. What we try to do is match the needs that we
identify abroad with business with Mexico. We are a
link. One of our strengths is the regional network that
we have in Mexico, and another is the international
network that we have established abroad.
Also, one of our main
purposes as Trade Commissioners abroad is to attract
foreign investment. We consider it a way to get a better
income distribution in Mexico and create wealth in
different regions.
How does this link up
with the innovative Presidential Office for Trade
Promotion?
As you know, when a new
government was elected at the end of the last year, the
new President Vicente Fox created an Office at the
Presidential level to coordinate the efforts of the
different Ministries and the different entities in the
roles they are playing as strategic planners and
strategy makers.
This Office is in charge
of bringing together the public and private sectors to
try to come up with new ideas on how we can take
advantage of the international trade treaties we have
and how we can diversify exports to the European market
that now is one of our priorities.
We have defined 15
sub-sectors of exporters and potential exporters where
the market has been growing dramatically in Mexico as a
result of the NAFTA treaty.
The agricultural or
agro-business sectors are very important for us. Food is
very important, electronic and auto parts, the
automotive industry, textiles and garments, furniture,
handicrafts, jewelry, D-I-Y products. We, as players in
this general strategy of export promotion, have
identified the main markets for those products and the
main producers.
The export market is
creating wealth, is creating more jobs -- workers are
much better paid. That is why we are trying to identify
what is needed to make that sector more
competitive.
We believe that with the
treaty we signed with the European Union last year and
the next one to come into force, I hope in next July,
with Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland, we will increase
our participation in the European market. In recent
years most of the Mexican exports to Europe are coming
from the US. We want to do it directly.
This Office is also
trying to encourage -- at the state level -- a trade
promotion organization in order to better coordinate the
efforts of exporters and to bring new ideas of potential
sectors that in the future Mexico could exploit. We are
considering very seriously the example of India. They
have developed the software sector.
And strategically?
At the export strategy
level Mexico has created a new plan. This plan is going
to bring infrastructure to the south part of Mexico. For
now, the investment and export industries are
concentrated in the northern part of Mexico. Through
this new initiative, the Office is pushing to have a
leading position in the export market and to introduce a
strategy that is well defined, with responsibility
apportioned for each of the players. This aspect is very
important.
Where does Bancomext fit
in?
We are one of the main
players in export promotion and attracting foreign
investment into Mexico. Bancomext has a very defined
strategy by region, by company size and by market --
around 38 offices in Mexico, 41 offices abroad.
You are also using the
Internet to help companies make a self-assessment of
their credit potential? How does this new scheme work?
Our main target market is
SMEs, companies that want to be more competitive
worldwide and want to get financed. With the Internet, we
have an auto-assessment methodology for the companies so
that they can see if they are capable of receiving a
credit from Bancomext. Access is like with a credit
card. This was launched very recently. We have four
months experience with this programme. We know that
little by little companies are using this mechanism to
submit to us the application to receive a credit.
We are able to provide an
answer quicker. Sometimes the most important thing is to
have a very quick answer. If they are not eligible to
receive a credit, we can give them advice as to why they
are not able to receive a credit or what they have to
do.
Bancomext also puts a
good deal of emphasis on going beyond the circle of
direct exporters -- some 40,000 -- to those who supply
the exporters. Why is that?
The indirect exporter is
very important because we believe that in the future the
indirect exporter could be a direct exporter. So most of
our programmes are available for all these companies.
We offer two kinds of
services. The first is financial. We give long-term and
short-term credit, other kinds of extra financial
services. One of our brand new services is export
insurance.
Also we have what we call
promotional services: information, advice, training, and
technical assistance. What we try to do is also to
create new exporters. To create new exporters we have to
teach them, we have to train them, give information and
advice.
What Bancomext is trying
to do is to cover the whole range that a possible
exporter may need. |
