The reality, many analysts say, is that Mexico offers investors and businesses a land of opportunity that rivals any other emerging market.
“What’s surprising — is how surprising it is that as an economic power, Mexico is under the radar for so many businesses and investors,” says Jose Manuel Ramirez of tax audit firm KPMG who co-wrote a recent study on investing in Mexico.
“For many years, Mexico has been doing all it can to attract investors and has reached a high level of sophistication,” Ramirez says. “There’s really a lot of great possibilities there.”
To make itself attractive to investors, Mexico has transformed from a small economy to an open and more diverse one. In the last 20 years, the Mexican government has made improvements to its infrastructure and fostered competition in sectors such as transportation, energy and telecommunications. (More:How to Get a Piece of Mexican Stocks)
As a result, Mexico has grown to be the 13th largest economy in the world — $2.4 trillion — and the 11th in purchasing power, according to the World Bank. The Mexican stock exchange — the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores — is valued at some $451 billion, second to only Brazil in Latin America and fifth in all of the Americas.
One of the biggest changes for Mexico has been its trade policies, says Antonio Garza, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and currently chairman of Vianovo Ventures, a business development firm.
