Peña Nieto Heads to New York After Energy Overhaul Moves
Peña Nieto Heads to New York After Energy Overhaul Moves
Investors in New York will be interested in hearing about President Peña Nieto’s plans to ensure the rule of law in the oil opening, points out COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto heads to New York next week to sell investors on an oil-industry opening that his government says will help double economic growth within three years.
The 48-year-old leader will use his visit for the United Nations General Assembly to promote measures designed to draw investment and create jobs, according to a person familiar with his plans, who asked not to be named before the public events. Pena Nieto also plans to speak alongside the presidents of Chile, Colombia and Peru at an event at Bloomberg world headquarters on Sept. 22 and the next day at the Council on Foreign Relations, whose corporate members include Bloomberg LP, Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc....
While Pena Nieto will probably be received positively for pushing through the changes, investors will be curious about his plans for his four remaining years in office and how his government will ensure the rule of law in the oil opening, said Eric Farnsworth, head of the Washington office of the Council of the Americas, a group representing U.S. businesses. That includes plans for quelling violence spurred by drug cartels in gas-rich northern states like Tamaulipas, he said.
“They’re going to want to hear from him about the next steps in the reform program,” Farnsworth said in a telephone interview from Washington. “Reform is a little bit like riding a bicycle -- if you stop pedaling, you fall off.”
Preliminary terms for the first private oil drilling will be released between November and January, with the first contracts awarded in the first half of 2015, according to the National Hydrocarbons Commission....
