31. What do you think about the México’s situation in the immediate and medium term future?
Well, I do not know but do not believe it will be one of the five economies; we already reached eight thousand dollars per capita, although income distribution is poor. Modern economy, the new civilization is very positive because it is supported by the well-being of others; it is very easy to create wealth, production is very easy, productivity has increased significantly, technology has made production very cheap, in large volumes and at very low prices. Globalization has made this even cheaper.
This new civilization allows leaving underdevelopment behind. When we see what has happened in Europe, and it has also been experienced in Asia; when one grows and let’s assume that we could grow at that 7 per cent, it would double every ten years. Then, this means we would fourfold in 20 years, with a GDP four times larger than today’s, and twofold in ten years; this means that we would be talking of approximately 16 thousand dollars more than what Korea has today, four times are 32 thousand dollars, more than what other developed countries have.
What do we need? Growth with employment; pay attention to the domestic economy, form human capital. This new civilization requires an everyday better human capital, that is health and education, and every day better education. Better education. We have to move from literacy to the digital culture plus science, more engineers, more research, more development; people not only prepared for humanism, we also have to train them, but also in science.
Then, we have a very good start with eight thousand dollars. I believe that is last year’s per capita income. China had 300 and India was close to that. We are already at eight thousand. Then we just have to grow consistently, in a sustainable manner with employment, and at the same time forming human and physical capital.
We have to combine resources and go beyond what the government has. And we have to invest; we need investment, in order to grow; invest in infrastructure, housing, tourism development, etc.
We have many elements, even to substitute today’s revenues. For example, we have 82 billion in trade surplus with the United States and an 85 billion deficit with countries outside the free trade agreement. Well, we are going to try to get those countries to buy from us since the 85 billion represent approximately ten percent of GDP, and if we do so, our deficit will be curved.
How? Negotiating with them, talking to them, inviting them to produce here instead of selling to us. For example, we previously imported oilrigs, some of them were imported from Cadiz and in view of the competition from Mexican companies that are building them here, the rig had to be placed here.
Then, it does not matter if manufacturers are Mexican or foreign, the important thing is that manufacturing is done in Mexico. Let us say that is the ideal and not the important thing. There are 12 yards and 12 companies building rigs. There are ten or eight Mexican companies building oilrigs when previously all of them were imported. Why was everything imported? Because there was no financing capacity in Mexico, etc., but in the last five years 85 to 90 per cent were built here. .
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