Mexico brings together APEC countries to boost the semiconductor supply ecosystem
Press release no. 037
Mexico City, September 8, 2024
On the 5th and 6th of this month, Mexico hosted the Second Symposium of the Alliance for Economic Prosperity in the Americas (APEP) “Building the supply ecosystem”, organized by the United States Department of State and the Ministry of Economy of the Federal Government.
At the first meeting, the Undersecretary of Industry and Commerce, Othón Valverde, stressed that Mexico will continue to work to strengthen the semiconductor chain, an industry that offers a significant opportunity for the development of the Wellbeing Poles.
He also said that it is necessary to continue promoting this sector through an assembly, testing and packaging chain, and in the future attract other stages of the ecosystem such as the design and manufacturing of microchips.
For their part, the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of State, Chad P. Bown, and Ambassador Lisa Kubiske mentioned that, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the “Chips Western Hemisphere Semiconductors” Initiative was presented, which improves the capacities of that sector in key partner countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.
At the second meeting, the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Alejandro Encinas Nájera, stressed that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of the world’s economies and that they must be strengthened, integrated, financed and updated to meet the requirements of today’s economy, “without MSMEs there is no relocation.”
He commented that the Mexican government is promoting collaboration between academia, industry and research centers to take advantage of financing opportunities in the United States, focused on talent development, improvements in regulatory policies and the development of the supply chain.
Encinas Nájera shared his views with the Vice Ministers of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica and Panama, Indiana Trejos and Carlos Hoyos, respectively, on the importance of working on complementarity to improve capacities in the semiconductor chain in countries of the region to strengthen relocation in the hemisphere.
During this meeting, initiatives between governments and companies in the Americas were recognized to promote the industry, strengthening the capabilities of its supply chain, seeking the integration of small and medium-sized companies.
In addition, a call was made to continue working on the transparency of this industry, to influence investor confidence, reinforce the prosperity of the sector and create opportunities for this and future generations in the American continent. It was also agreed to join forces as a hemisphere to develop talent.
Throughout the roundtables focused on SMEs, topics related to challenges and opportunities were highlighted, both in terms of market penetration and financing, risk mitigation, making supply chains more resilient and designing strategies to improve customs operations.
This meeting brought together various representatives from companies in the semiconductor, information technology and telecommunications, and electronics sectors, as well as from academia, research centers of the Government of Mexico, and state secretariats of Economic Development and Innovation.
It should be noted that this symposium is derived from the International Technology Innovation and Security Fund (ITSI), approved by the CHIPS Act of 2022, to benefit the semiconductor sector capacity of each of the APEP members.
