32 / 54
Something to be highlighted is the so called Special
Economic Zones, initiative that is under way assigning
federal land spaces, four or five in total, among the
less developed southern states with special tax
treatment designed to create industrial parks.
In recent years an Institute to boost Entrepreneurial
startups (INADEM) has been performing in alliance
with Academic and Science institutions to foster
creation of innovative enterprises along with an
old Institute for Science and Technology which has
received budget resources that amount up to 0.166%
of National Gross Product (GNP). Twenty six thousand
academic researchers were benefited with these
funds and have been rewarded for their publications.
On the other hand, business investment in research
and development (R&D) accomplishes another 0.2%
of GNP. This includes state government owned oil
company Pemex. The rest of national investment in
R&D is provided by federal funds assigned to public
universities. Developed countries invest far above
2% of GNP in R&D, thus Mexico requires a significant
change of pace.
It is well known in Mexico that publication of
research results is too risky, exposes disclosure of
possible patent opportunities by an unforeseen
researcher, while not producing industrial alliances
for the scientist creating an issue that requires a
substantial overhaul. For example, this year, called
dual year Mexico – Germany has shown in diverse
instances that a University in Germany gets an
increase in Government funding if its academic body
gets innovations into industrial production, using
royalty paid to the researcher as an evidence of his
or her success.
Cluster collaboration has been another learning
contribution inMexico gained fromopening industrial
markets. Institutions such as the Tecnológico de
Monterrey and INEGI in collaboration with INADEM,
have spent significant research resources since the
creation of the so called Strategic Observatory and
Mexico´s Cluster Mapping site, whose mission is
to detect possible cluster formations detected and
publicized quoting product opportunities within
specific macrotendencies. With INEGI´s detailed
statistical information by economic sector or even
with microdata by enterprise, researchers can
access freely those services to study and detect
which category of products have substantial muscle
in a region by means of its Economic weight,
Concentration Index, pondering Production Output,
Occupied labor and Value added.
This same institute has published and promoted a
guide to get regional agreements within potential
regional members that supports cluster formation.
This initiative can be farsighted as the right spot to
assign a new kind of collaborative or dual budget
spending. This could mean, having federal budget
assigned to pay academic researchers that work
inside companies looking for innovations and cluster
formation can be successfully worked out.
Mexico´s place in 2016-2017 WEF competitiveness
index is 51. That is this new development effort in
which machine building, material handling through
advanced communication and transportation
infrastructure and delivering value added with
performance rewards for labor accomplishments
will play a substantial role to get into a better rank.
IMEF is interested in supporting these initiatives that
are built on solid insights, thus the path for a fourth
decade of success is being laid out at a speedy pace.
32