The Secretariat of Economy (SE), through the National Institute of the Entrepreneur (INADEM), the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), and Fomento Económico Mexicano (FEMSA, all by its acronyms in Spanish) signed a collaboration agreement for the update of the study of strategic sectors in Mexico.

The firm was led by Enrique Jacob Rocha, President of the INADEM; Alejandro Poiré, Dean of the School of Government and Public Transformation of the ITESM, and Genaro Borrego, Director General of Corporate Affairs of FEMSA.

The study that will be updated was prepared by the ITESM in March 2013, and served as a basis for guiding strategically, during that year and 2014, the supports for entrepreneurs and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises that awarded the Entrepreneur National Fund (FNE, in Spanish), in alignment with the Secretariat for Industry and Commerce, the Mexican Association of Secretaries of Economic Development (AMSDE) and the state and municipal governments.

The update, along with the information generated by the 2014 Economic Census of the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI), will allow to review again jointly with the AMSDE, the state governments, the Secretariat of Industry and Trade and the Unit of Economic productivity of the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP, all acronyms in Spanish), the strategic sectors to boost in each of the 32 states starting 2016.

The President of INADEM stressed that one of the conditions for promoting the continued promotion of competitiveness, the continued growth of the productivity and the implementation of a national policy of economic development that promotes an industrial development that includes sectorial and regional aspects, in accordance with the Law to Promote the Sustained Increase of the Productivity and Competitiveness of the National Economy, it is that the public policies aimed to promote the economy have a successful focus on the most dynamic and most promising activities in which our country has possibilities of specialization and quality to compete in the world.

"In the INADEM, we have achieved, since the start of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, align the policy of support for entrepreneurs and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises with the state and municipal governments in the country to obtain greater economic impact in those sectors and regions that correspond to their respective vocations and specializations", Enrique Jacob said.

Alejandro Poiré mentioned that the agreement "is an initiative more of work by the ITESM, particularly by its School of Government and Public Transformation, in order to generate useful public goods for our country. From the perspective of the ITESM, we aspire to contribute to the formation of an entrepreneurial spirit with a human sense; all of our students and graduates should be in an environment in which, being a university institution, we can get closer the useful knowledge for the transformation".

He added that this is an extraordinary opportunity on which the ITESM will donate half of the funding for these activities of applied research, because what is going to allow is to bring all the expertise of economists and political scientists who are within the School of Government, at its Institute for Regional Development, for the benefit of decision-makers, both from the public and private field, to develop, in a better way, the strategic sectors in each of the institutions of our country.

Genaro Borrego said that "supporting this research through the alliance with the INADEM and Monterrey Tech strengthens the analysis of the economic and social information at a regional level, which is vital for the development of the potentials in all states of our country (...) With this effort, FEMSA promotes the use of economic opportunities there is in each entity to generate more enterprises, more jobs and a better quality of life for all Mexicans".

The work that in this first stage will perform the INADEM-ITESM-FEMSA partnership, will also allow the identification of strategic opportunities that will be based not only on the economic and social information, but they also have the support of stakeholders, experts and business representatives of the main economic activities in the states.

The study that will conducted by the Institute for Regional Development of the School of Government and Public Transformation of the ITESM will have 5 chapters:

1. Identification of strategic sectors.
2. Analysis of the Energy Sector by State.
3. Prioritization of activities for higher impact on output and employment
4. Identification of the enterprises in strategic sectors with greater impact on output and employment.
5. Definition of strategic projects.

The INADEM will launch the necessary calls to the regional actors with the support of the Secretariats of State Economic Development to maximize the business participation in the study, and then will coordinate the meetings with the state governments, the Under secretariat of Industry and Trade and the Unit of Economic productivity of the SHCP to renew the strategic alignment in favor of entrepreneurs and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the country.

With its participation in this alliance, FEMSA renews the collaboration with the public sector to the benefit of entrepreneurs and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the country, contributing with 50% of the resources needed for the making of the study.

At the signing ceremony, they were also present, Amado Villarreal, Director of the Institute for Regional Development of the School of Government and Public Transformation of the ITESM; Alfredo Sánchez, Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Innovation Clusters of the Council Mexico-United States for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MUSEIC) and Alejandro González, General Coordinator of Strategic Planning, Evaluation and Monitoring of the INADEM.