“Nuevo León could achieve 5% GDP growth in 2021,” says the Secretary of Economy and Labor Roberto Russildi

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Monterrey, NL.- The Secretary of Economy and Labor of Nuevo León, Roberto Russildi Montellano, estimated that the Mexican economy could reach a growth of 3.5% of the Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ) and Nuevo León could grow 5% of the GDP, mainly due to the dynamics of export activity, the recovery of employment, the arrival of the vaccine sooner, and continuing to attract Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ).

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon (Archive)

“We foresee that the country may have a growth of 3.5% and Nuevo León has a 5% growth, based on the fact that the economic activity of the state depends on exports mainly to the United States, and the fact of the vaccine arriving sooner than expected, help our economy to recover”.

“This is how we see it and we are hopeful that the vaccine can arrive soon to our state, as the logistics are controlled by the federation,” Russildi Montellano said.

He stressed that 2020 has not been a bad year for FDI, because as of September 2.4 billion US dollars were raised, and with the entry into force of the T-MEC , it opens opportunities for more investment to arrive so that companies comply with the regional content.

According to Information from Data Nuevo León, in the year 2019, a total of 3.2 billion pesos of FDI were officially registered.

Secretary of Economy and Labor of Nuevo León, Roberto Russildi Montellano

Pandemic management

The secretary of Economy and Labor of the entity explained that with the Covid-19 pandemic some challenges were faced, but there was communication with the Chambers, Organizations, and Unions. At the end of March, practically everything was closed, except for medical services and food.

In April and May, it had meetings with the manufacturing, chemical products, and construction sectors reviewing the sanitary protocols for when the time to reopen arrived, however, in that period 80,000 jobs were lost, and in June there were another 3,000 casualties.

“In total 85,725 jobs were lost. Given this situation in mid-May, small and medium-sized companies sought financing. I believe that Nuevo León is the state that has granted the most lines of credit in the country, we have 2.5 billion pesos, which companies received for an average amount of 1.5 million, with this initiative, nearly 2,000 SMEs have been benefited, “he said.

Together with financial support for SMEs, the state government and private initiative jointly decided on strategies to control contagion in companies: work at home, private transportation for workers, extended hours (they work more hours in four days), and staggered hours, many companies had doctors in their facilities, it was achieved with a lot of support from the private initiative and unions.

“That allowed the trade and services to reopen on June 16, but infections increased from 275 to 700 per day, it was when we closed on weekends, fortunately, the infections were reduced to 500, in August-October,” he said.

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon (Archive)

The population got tired of being locked up and left in November, increasing infections, health and the government again decided to close the weekends, it was a complicated measure but in two weeks the infections decreased, “today we have 600 daily.”

“We call on the population, factories and businesses are taking care of their employees, it is in social life where contagions are being generated, we need to stay always ineffective communication, this last time there was a lot of resistance to closures, trade, and services,” he declared.

As of December 13th, a total of 66,087 jobs have been recovered, from July to November 2020, according to data from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).

Source: El Economista

Monterrey Daily Post