- Co-operation needed between public and private sectors to develop infrastructure
Mexico’s port cargo traffic is expected to increase 80 percent to 508 million tonnes per year by 2018.
Currently 282 million tonnes of cargo is moved annually, according to figures from Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation.
Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, the nation’s general coordinator of ports and merchant marine, told the Mexican Chamber of Construction Industry the rising demand for port services will increase the need for new co-operation between the public and private sectors.
Currently businesses focus on the construction and operation of specialised terminals, but the Mexican government wants to further promote the development of basic infrastructure, such as work on breakwaters, dredging, protection and access and maintenance of terminals.
As a result, the government plans to explore public-private partnerships to strengthen basic infrastructure in the ports of Veracruz, Mexico’s oldest and principal port for most of the country’s imports and exports, particularly the automotive industry and Mazatlán the chamber was told.
Ruiz de Teresa added that in the medium term, the government also expects to see increasing participation of the private sector in other areas, such as logistics infrastructure.
