Mexico’s next leader promises to alleviate Spain’s economic straits

Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto on Monday offered his country’s support to help Spain break away from the ongoing economic crisis. In Madrid for a series of meetings with Spanish businessmen and officials, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) leader said that once he takes office on December 1, he will introduce a series of economic strategies to help “development in my country, but which at the same time will help Spain emerge from the crisis.”

Although he didn’t specifically state what these strategies entail, Peña Nieto mentioned that he wanted to open up the state-owned petroleum firm Pemex to private investment and reform the country’s financing laws.

“Spain is our second-most important partner in the European Union, and the nation with the largest [inward] investment at $45 billion, but that relationship must be improved to become more beneficial for both countries,” he said.

On Monday, the Mexico City daily El Universal reported that the Popular Party (PP) had confirmed a Pemex investment of 247 million euros in the construction of an industrial complex in Galicia for storage, shipment and deliveries of oil industry liquids. The project, which requires the construction of 14 boats in local shipyards, will generate more than 2,500 jobs, the newspaper said quoting a PP statement.

Once the environmental impact statements are approved, the construction of the new complex could begin as early as next year. The PP said that Pemex project will jumpstart the shipping industry in Galicia, where some 7,000 people have lost their jobs over the past two years, El Universal said.

The agreement was first hammered out during Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s visit to Mexico in April. The PP leader was accompanied by Galician regional premier Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who is running for re-election next Sunday.

Peña Nieto met with Rajoy at La Moncloa Palace on Monday and was also expected to meet with King Juan Carlos.