Salomon Jara Cruz names the list the infrastructure works that have been carried out, such as the InterOceanic Train and the highways to the coastal and isthmus region as announced by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “With the Oaxacan Spring, the good times have arrived,” adds the interviewee.
Salomón Jara Cruz, Governor of Oaxaca.
Real Estate Market & Lifestyle (REM): What is the economic and social importance of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT) project for the state of Oaxaca?
Salomón Jara Cruz (SJC): The Government of Transformation is determined to place Oaxaca at the center of economic development, taking advantage of its biodiversity and its geographical position, in order to lay the foundations for the comprehensive and sustainable development of the eight regions.
As never before, and with the support of the Federal Government, we are promoting the CIIT along with strategic projects, generating jobs, economic benefits, and welfare for thousands of Oaxacan families.
With this multimodal corridor project, Oaxaca is called to end the inequality between the North and South of Mexico, opening new horizons of development for our people, who for decades have been neglected and overlooked by neoliberal administrations.
This important Inter-Oceanic Corridor will detonate the economic growth and development of the entity, as well as the creation of jobs and the improvement of income for the population of 46 municipalities in the area, as it contemplates the construction of nine industrial parks called Polos de Desarrollo para el Bienestar (Podebis).
The same will happen thanks to the implementation of the CIIT passenger train, which will have great economic and social connotations for the entire South-Southeast of Mexico.
The shipping industry transports cargo in large container ships.
REM: How much public, federal and state investment has been made?
SJC: Millions of pesos have been invested. For example, in Matías Romero and Santa María Petapa, an investment of 1,860 million pesos has been contemplated for spaces related to culture, education and physical activity.
In Matías Romero, the House of Culture (Casa de la Cultura) was built through an investment of 10 million 458 thousand 416 pesos. In this same location, work is being carried out on the renovation of the Railway Station and the Municipal Palace.
This package of works, wich will amount to a total invesment of 130 million pesos in this municipality alone, has been promoted by the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu) of the Mexican Government.
REM: How much private investment is expected to come to the entity through the Podebis and the companies that will be installed in them?
SJC: We are a facilitating government, open to public and private investments and receptive to those who wish to attract their capital to our region.
We are confident that private investment will turn its attention to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which is destined to become one of the most important regions in Mexico and Latin America. Currently, one of the poles will be managed by a Danish company- a Danish economic and financial fund- committing to invest 10 billion dollars.
This is how we are laying the foundations for the integral and sustainable development of our state and generating opportunities for everyone, mainly by taking advantage of the geographical position and resources of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region in a responsible manner.
El proyecto detonará el crecimiento económico y el desarrollo de la región.
REM: In particular, have you evaluated the amount and type of employment that will be generated in Oaxaca when the Isthmus railroad, the port, the Podebis and all the activities related to the CIIT are fully operational?
SJC: The CIIT will generate 7,300 jobs in the area that comprises 79 municipalities in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.
This figure represents 0.36 percent of the federal government's projected goal of creating two million jobs nationwide between April and December, as part of the economic reactivation strategy.
The economic reactivation and the generation of jobs in this region is not a promise to be fulfilled in the future, but a current reality and the jobs that our people need are already being generated. Since the beginning of the corridor construction, as with other infrastructure projects, designers, engineers, masons and other construction workers, many of them from the different communities in the region, are already at work.
The ClIT represents a historic public investment in infrastructure; it will also attract private, national and foreign investment.
Likewise, with the completion of the Oaxaca-Isthmus superhighway, which our President announced for the month of August, our entity will increase its development poles and will be an optimal state for public-private sector investment.
Economic development projects have specific job profile requirements.
For this reason, and in order to strengthen efforts with the companies that will develop the infrastructure projects, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare has offered a labor intermediation platform from the National Employment Service (SNE) in order to publish different job vacancies or offers and thus help fill them with talent from the region.
The economic development projects have specific labor profile requirements depending on the productive activities that are arriving in the region, so through the Youth Building the Future Program skills and competencies of the youth may be formed.
In the Isthmus it is necessary to prepare the population, mainly the younger generation, in the different skills and competencies that will be demanded for innovation in the labor market.
That is why the CIIT has made the Youth Building the Future Program available to promote the inclusion of young people in training, hand in hand with different tutors, companies, and businesses that are being formed.
Today, as never before, the Government of Transformation is an inclusive government that gives priority to the transforming energy of our youth, providing them with opportunities so that through their knowledge they can contribute to the transformation of our great nation.
The program will help reduce the disparities that exist between employers and job seekers, as more than 50% of employers in Mexico say they cannot find the right profile for their vacancies.
Transisthmian Train, one of the Government's main projects (2023).
REM: In addition to the CIIT's logistical focus, do you think it will contribute to increasing Oaxaca's industrialization?
SJC: Of course, this project will detonate Oaxaca's industrial and economic activity. In addition, tax exemptions will be given to promote investments in the Corridor.
Oaxaca cannot be exempt from the development that our country is experiencing, nor can it be on the sidelines of the progress of other cities when it has the potential to be a reference of national well-being and progress.
We are going to provide tax incentives. Those who invest there will not pay value added tax (VAT) or income tax (ISR).
I emphasize that this project will promote the growth of specialized jobs for students of local technical schools, this given that companies will be established and there will be jobs. This is the future for the Isthmus and the new generations.
In conjunction with the CIIT, other projects are being carried out that favor this work, such as the rehabilitation of the main railroad network, which includes 227 kilometers of track, 82 bridges and 290 drainage works.
The two ports, their connectivity, and the draft will also be expanded to allow the entry of the world's largest container ships.
Another focus is the creation of an interoceanic fiber optic network to achieve greater modernization and communication of the port areas.
Finally, work will be done on the highway that connects both points, as well as the connection of the highway from Oaxaca to Tehuantepec, and the highway from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido.
REM: What economic vocations do you think could be promoted through the Podebis of Oaxaca?
SJC: One of the vocations is agribusiness, everything related to the countryside, because our land is fertile for all types of production and we have to take advantage of its potential. In this Government we are working on public policies to guarantee the food sovereignty of the people and then, they can produce to export and sell. To this end, we are also implementing programs to promote the value added to the products generated by the communities, so that they can go to the national and even international market, making the most of the opportunities offered by the CIIT.
Isthmus Railway, icon of transformation in the South (2023).
REM: Will there be enough skilled labor to meet the demand of the companies that will come to the entity? How are you foreseeing the training needs of future technicians?
SJC: If there is something that distinguishes us as a people, it is that we are hard-working people, "chambeador", as we say. Currently, we are working with the educational authorities and the communities so that the educational institutions have programs and strategies according to the needs of the companies that will be installed in the Development Poles. Research is already being carried out by a group made up of 20 national universities that are members of the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES) and are coordinated by the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca (UABJO) with the aim of supporting development in the communities within the area of influence and throughout the state. In this regard, the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) of Oaxaca and the Technical Secretariat of the Inter-Secretariat Commission for the Inter-Oceanic Corridor will head the response to the educational, scientific, technological, innovation and job training needs arising from the implementation of the development poles planned for the Isthmus region.
REM: What contribution is the state of Oaxaca making to ensure the success of the CIIT?
SJC: By means of the State Development Plan 2022-2028, the programs and projects that join actions with those proposed by the Federal Government to benefit the citizens in the agri-food, industrial development, community and sustainable tourism sectors, as well as in the formation of human capital, topics that were discussed at various working tables. The aim is to enable the municipalities to take advantage of their potential in the different productive sectors, generate investments in them and find marketing and distribution channels that will allow them to improve their income as well as find new markets and export channels in addition to the formation and training of specialized personnel to cover the supply of jobs.
Oaxaca has a government open to investments.
REML: What is the Government of Oaxaca doing to receive the expected large investments?
SJC: As we have mentioned, we are a government open to investments, which generates facilitations for the national and international market and we are very interested in providing the conditions that allow the agents of the economy to join efforts for the benefit of all. We also work through the different agencies to provide peace and security to the people and communities, opening doors and calling for dialogue to reach agreements that generate collective benefits and allow the governance of the state territory.
REM: Are good times on the horizon for Oaxaca?
SJC: Of course good times are coming for Oaxaca, with the Oaxacan Spring the good times have arrived, as proof of this are the millions of dollars in investments in the municipalities with the lowest rates of development, important works such as the Inter-Oceanic Train, the highway to the Coast region, the highway to the Isthmus region that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has already announced and many other actions that have been programmed, that is why I emphasize that the good times have arrived to Oaxaca.
There cannot be a rich government with poor people' and we are determined to transform this reality. Gone are the times when officials enriched themselves at the expense of our people, because as we have said: 'With the people everything and without the people nothing'.
Text:Real Estate Market & Lifestyle
Photo: vecstock / ADOBE STOCK / INFOBAE / stt