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 Business News | March 2007 
Calderon Bets on Small Businesses to Lift Economy
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Mexico's president Felipe Calderon speaks during a press conference at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Monday, March 5, 2007. Calderon announced plans to quadruple lending to small businesses and ease regulations for them, in what officials described as a bid to create jobs so Mexicans won't have to emigrate in search of work. (AP/Dario Lopez-Mills) |
Mexico City – Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Monday announced plans to quadruple small business loans and make it easier to open a business, hoping to spur job growth and keep Mexicans from leaving to seek work in the U.S.
Calderón, who touts himself as the “Jobs President,” vowed a new emphasis for the tiny, often family-run businesses that provide about 70 percent of all jobs here.
“The motor of the economy that creates jobs, are the Mexicans who decide to work and become entrepreneurs and open a business,” Calderón told a meeting of businessmen and political leaders.
The most ambitious part of the plan is to boost the number of “micro-loans” – tiny credits that allow individuals to start small stores, street stands or workshops – from 700,000 in 2007 to 3 million by 2012, when Calderón's term ends.
While the loans average only about 1,285 pesos each ($115), officials said they can often make a difference in creating jobs. Calderón said the program would focus on helping women.
Since he took office in December, Calderón said his administration has made huge strides in getting local governments to ease the red tape required to open small businesses.
About 220 town and city governments – of the approximately 2,450 that exist in Mexico – have signed up on a plan that promises to grant authorizations and permits for small businesses to open within three days. Before the plan, it took an average of about 27 days.
Gonzalo Alarcon, the mayor of Atizapan, a suburban community of the northern outskirts of the capital, was the latest mayor to sign the fast-track agreement for small business, said it could help keep Mexicans from leaving to look for work abroad.
“With this agreement, we can encourage hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to invest their money and create more jobs within our own borders, and thus stop our fellow citizens from leaving our country,” said Alarcon. |
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