Mexico joins the top 25 of largest foreign investment in Nearshoring

MEXICO - Mexico returned to the top 25 of the countries that attract the most foreign direct investment thanks to the arrival of capital for the construction of plants, factories and manufacturing production lines that migrate from Asia and other places to the Mexican economy, a phenomenon known as nearshoring, explained Omar Troncoso, CEO of Kearney.

"Mexico gets back into the top 25, in 21st position, after having disappeared 4 years from the ranking of foreign direct investment," he said.

The specialist added that there is an outflow of investments from Asia and other countries to the Mexican market, as businessmen are seeing a disruption in the supply chain, geopolitical tension and the trade war between the United States and China.

The last time Mexico was among the 25 economies that attracted the most foreign investment, said the executive, was in the first year of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when it was in 25th place in the ranking and from there it was left out.

During Enrique Peña Nieto's administration, Mexico was in ninth place in the ranking of foreign investment attraction in 2015, from that year onwards everything went uphill

"In 2023, there were foreign direct investment announcements for more than US$106 billion," he noted.

Omar Troncoso added that the amount of foreign direct investment announced from January 2023 to March 2024 is equivalent to 3.8 times the amount of FDI materialized during 2023.

"In addition, the relocation of companies is included due to the scarcity of resources, geopolitical tension between Russia and Australia and imbalance in the raw materials market," he commented.

He added that Mexico became the world's 12th economy in 2023, as well as positioning itself to continue benefiting from the strategies of the United States and Europe.

"Mexico is the country that has benefited the most from manufacturing investments migrating from Asia and elsewhere to Mexico," said Omar Troncoso.

Investors believe that Mexico will continue to be a key player in reshoring to the United States, as it receives 2.7 percent of foreign direct investment as a proportion of GDP, while Brazil receives 4.8 percent.