Narayan AmmachchiGlobal media often depicts the country as a lawless war zone, but in reality the situation in Mexico is much more nuanced and invariably less extreme. Doing business in Mexico is less risky than it is in Brazil, China or India, says a new white paper prepared by Nearshore America’s sister publication – Global Delivery Report.
To make its case, the report cites data collected by the Mexican government, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the FBI, the US State Department and from Mexican NGOs.
DOWNLOAD: Guadalajara’s Low Risk and High Reward Creates Thriving Technology and Investment Climate
Dubbed “Mexico’s Silicon Valley,” Guadalajara is at the heart of the country’s high-tech sector, with major industries including software services, multimedia production, aerospace, automotive, electronics contract manufacturing and embedded design. Global giants IBM, Dell, Intel, HP and Tata Consultancy Services all have a presence here.
The report notes that Mexico is now ranked 48th in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, well above other BPO hotspots such as Brazil (#130) and India (#132), and that it takes just 14 days to set up a business in Guadalajara.
The report – titled Guadalajara’s Low Risk and High Reward Creates Thriving Technology and Investment Climate” – is authored by Nearshore Americas’ Associate Editor Duncan Tucker, TCS’ LATAM CEO Ankur Prakash and the Indian tech giant’s regional Vice President Rajeev Gupta.
According to the report, no transnational corporation has ever been threatened or attacked in Guadalajara, and there is no evidence of US citizens being deliberately targeted by drug gangs.
The majority of violence is concentrated far from Guadalajara in northern Mexico, and Guadalajara will remain in “relative calm” due to the city’s low strategic value to drug-trafficking organizations, says the report.
With low labor costs and a strong talent pool, Guadalajara is fast growing into Mexico’s technology capital. The city is approximately two hours by plane from Los Angeles or Houston and four hours from New York or Chicago. Located in the Central Time Zone, it is just two hours ahead of Silicon Valley, making it an ideal destination for outsourcing service providers.
From 2007 to 2013, over 155,000 new jobs were created in Jalisco and the state received more than $13.8 billion US of private investment. The report explains that Guadalajara itself is now one of the most developed economies in Mexico, with exports surpassing $27 billion USD, imports above $37 billion USD and investment currently over $3 billion per year.
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