President Peña Nieto presents plan to create special economic zones

President Enrique Peña Nieto presented today a plan to create Special Economic Zones (ZEE for its Spanish acronym) to boost development in the south of the country by attracting investments for highly productive industries and create jobs.

The special economic zones include the Port of Lázaro Cardenas, the neighboring municipalities of Michoacán and Guerrero as well as the Interoceanic Corridor of Tehuantepec, including Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz; Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Puerto Chiapas, Chiapas.

The zones are expected to create 115,000 direct jobs over the next 10 years.

The plan also includes tax benefits for investors as well as special training programs and professional certification.

Moreover, the government will invest 115 billion pesos (US$6.7 billion) in infrastructure projects such as pipelines, railways, roads, airports, ports and logistics.

The plan was developed in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank (WB) and Harvard University.