Mexico needs to grow at least 4.5% a year, says businessman Carlos Slim
Mexico requires an annual growth of 4.5% in the next few years, which is why it is obliged to strengthen its economy and domestic market, Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim said today.
"We have to grow more, take care of current spending that is excessive, we have to take care of the debt that is excessive and the fall of oil production to 1.8 million (barrels) a day," Slim said in the 16th edition of the Summit of Business that started today in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.
"With issues to be resolved such as corruption and some advantages and decisions, we have to grow at least 4.5% in the coming years," said the honorary and life president of Grupo Carso.
Slim said that Mexico must "look for sustained growth" that will take it out of the underdevelopment stage, a strategy that must be accompanied by programs that guarantee the well-being of the population.
"What Mexico should do is strengthen this internal economy, that people start to have jobs, that they have better incomes, what makes the fight against poverty the best investment of a country is that you involve them (the citizens) modernity and the market, "he explained.
The considered one of the richest businessmen in the world added that when people have more education, more capacity to buy and access to employment with training have the ability to grow the internal economy and feed back the growth of the country.
Before 1,000 business leaders, politicians, specialists, academics and young entrepreneurs, Slim said that in the last 38 years, Mexico has squandered many growth opportunities, including the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada.
He recalled that except for the five years of the government of President Ernesto Zedillo, in which there was a growth of 5% per year, the governments of recent decades have made the country grow less than 2% per year, a figure "very bad "for the changes that the world is experiencing.
"With the other governments there have been 1,000 trillion dollars for oil, hundreds of trillions of dollars with remittances and hundreds of trillions for tourism, a good part goes to current expenditure and the debt rises from 133 million to 430 million dollars, we have wasted many opportunities, "he said.
Under the motto "Designing the future: Mexico before a disruptive world", the business summit seeks to debate the strategic priorities throughout the region and the changes in the political and commercial relationship with the United States.
During the inaugural table Claude Smadja, founder and president of the company Smadja & Smadja Strategic Advisory in Switzerland, assured that Mexico must generate economic strategies to survive the economic confrontation between the United States and China.
For this one of the challenges of the next government is to strengthen its pact with the European Union because the international economy is entering a new phase in which powers seek to destroy the supply chain and return the maquiladora industry to their territories.
The Business Summit will continue until October 23 with conferences and working groups in which Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador are expected to chat with attendees.
