Mexico's government on Monday unveiled a second infrastructure investment plan, in collaboration with the private sector, that calls for 228 billion pesos (11.4 billion U.S. dollars) in spending on 29 public works projects.
Finance Minister Arturo Herrera said at a press conference the goal was to kick-start jobs creation by immediately spending in such sectors as communications, energy, tourism and the environment, among others.
The new package comes in the wake of an initial infrastructure investment plan launched in October, for a total of 68 projects at a cost of 525 billion pesos, or 2.3 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product (GDP).
"The projects are found throughout the country," Herrera told President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other officials and private-sector leaders attending the press conference.
Among the main projects is a 47-billion-peso liquefied natural gas terminal in Ensenada, a town in the northwest Mexican state of Baja California.
The president of the Business Coordinating Council, Carlos Salazar, said the projects could generate 400,000 new jobs, making up for some of the jobs lost to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Mexican economy, the second largest in Latin America after Brazil, could see a 9 percent drop in 2020 due to the pandemic, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Editor: Galia
