Monterrey 2014 Blog: Keynote by CEMEX's Fernando González

By
Elizabeth Gonzalez

The CEO of the building materials company pointed out areas of improvement to expand Mexico's competitiveness.

In his speech, CEMEX chief executive officer Fernando González said energy reforms were an important step for the transformation of the Mexican economy, but were not enough on their own.  

— boz (@bloggingsbyboz) November 19, 2014

The energy reforms present an opportunity to accelarate the pace at which the economy is currently growing, at an average 2.5 percent over the last 30 years. But expanding the energy sector won't generate a globally competitive economy. Instead, Mexico needs to meet four requisites beforehand, according to González. First, the country has to strengthen the rule of law.

This will create a business climate that will attract and ensure investors by diminishing risk. 

Second, there must be greater labor productivity and human capital, followed by modernizing infrastructure and increasing the capacity to innovate. "The country ranks eighty-first globally in innovation," said González.

Mexico should take advantage of recent technological innovations and the expanse of information available today. Even though Monterrey has great universities and educational institutions, Mexico needs to generate more technicians, scientists, and engineers.

Increasing productivity is among the greater challenges but with viable solutions. For example, the least productive companies need four times the capital per unit of production than do large companies. González cited an International Monetary Fund estimate that transferring small companies' resources to large companies would double production.

Watch the video: