Business owners organized with the Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin), one of Mexico’s largest chambers of commerce, announced that 50 billion pesos ($2.64 billion) of investment has been deferred due to the conflict between the government and the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE).
In a press conference Wednesday, Concamin president Manuel Herrera Vega expressed concern about uncertainty for new investments.
“According to Concamin’s calculations, more than 10 billion pesos have been lost so far,” he said.
Herrera Vega said that the education conflict will complicate Mexico’s economic growth, and that it is already putting national and foreign investment at risk.
“Already, 20,000 jobs were not created due to the education conflict,” he said. “From now on, we are forced to defer about 50 billion pesos of investment.”
According to Herrera Vega, the lack of investment will prevent another 40,000 jobs from being created.
Herrera Vega expressed his impatience with the roadblocks and other disruptions that have been carried out by the CNTE for two months.
He also said that investors have a right to certainty for new investments.
Herrera Vega said that the sectors that have suffered most due to the education conflict have been the automotive sector, the dairy sector, the cement sector and the electronics sector.