José Guillermo Zozaya, AMIA’s new executive president, said that digital transformation will be a key factor in overcoming the development traps in Latin America and the Caribbean
“Today more than ever, in a context of uncertainty and global complexity, the national automotive industry reaffirms its commitment to the well-being of Mexican families,” emphasizes José Guillermo Zozaya, new executive president of the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA) .
According to the manager, over more than 90 years, the entire chain derived from the automotive sector has generated stable and well-paid jobs, which amount to 961,875 direct jobs, which currently represent 22.6% of participation in the manufacturing sector; in addition to demanding inputs from 80% of the branches of the national economy.
“As part of this commitment to the economic and social development of Mexico, the automotive sector has been a source of foreign exchange and innovation, proof of this has been that, of every 100 dollars for manufacturing exports, 36 come from this industry, which it is possible thanks to the fact that, in the last five years, 21 out of every 100 dollars of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have been attracted by this branch of the economy ”.
In this sense, he pointed out that 36% of our country’s manufacturing exports from the automotive sector placed Mexico as the fifth world exporter of auto parts and the first supplier of these components to the United States market. He also pointed out that Mexico is the fourth world exporter of light vehicles, ranking above countries such as South Korea and Brazil.
It is worth mentioning that, currently, Mexico is the sixth vehicle manufacturer in the world and the first in Latin America, which, according to José Guillermo Zozaya, allows the sector to contribute 20.5% of the manufacturing GDP and 3.8% of the national GDP .
A LATAM-sized challenge
The latest report “Economic Perspectives of Latin America”, from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), documents that the COVID-19 crisis is taking the GDP to record lows throughout the Latin American region and the Caribbean with accentuated consequences in the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.
The document, published on September 24, 2020, forecasts the closure of 2.7 million microenterprises, with an associated loss of jobs of 8.5 million throughout the region, and estimates that more than 45 million additional people will fall into poverty. It also points out that some governments have made interventions in the public policy space in order to protect human, productive and financial capacities.
However, it exposes that financial and institutional capacities are limited, and the problems faced are structural in nature, such as notable informality, low productivity and socioeconomic vulnerability.
The ECLAC document offers alternatives in public policy to take advantage of the digital transformation that is happening in the context of the confinement caused by the current coronavirus crisis in various productive and social areas. This is in order to promote a more inclusive and sustainable development in the region.
Additionally, it analyzes the potential of digital transformation to:
Improve diversification and productivity growth
Promote inclusion and well-being
Strengthen public institutions and improve governance.
Finally, it examines the importance of implementing new international alliances and strengthening existing ones in order to take advantage of all the benefits of digital transformation.