BajaNews - 3-6-2009 at 05:15 PM
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/06/1m6calder...
By Sandra Dibble
March 6, 2009
Despite the global economic downturn and Mexico's security issues, President Felipe Calderón yesterday found hope at a solar cell production factory
near the U.S. border.
Addressing employees at the newly expanded, Japanese-owned Kyocera Solar plant in Tijuana, Calderón said alternative energy will not only create jobs
but also will offer Baja California residents a new source of power.
“I know that Kyocera will sell these panels quickly as warm bread,” Calderón told the rows of blue-garbed workers, “even before the U.S. economy
recovers, especially with a society that is clearly looking to renewable energy, such as California.”
Accompanied on the dais by Kyocera executives, Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán and Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos, the president focused
on Mexico's economic, environmental and security issues as he wrapped up a two-day visit to the state.
Calderón vowed to continue the battle against drug cartels that he launched shortly after taking office in 2006, a fight that cost more than 6,000
lives across Mexico last year. He urged other Mexican states to follow the example of Baja California, where local and state governments have been
cooperating closely with the federal government.
“We are living through a decisive period in our struggle,” Calderón said. “We shall not rest until Tijuana is free of organized crime.”
Kyocera Solar's plans at its 250-employee Tijuana plant were touted as an affirmation of the region's long-term promise.
Although Baja California lost thousands of jobs in the past year – depending on the source, figures range from 4,000 to 20,000 – Kyocera is looking to
expand production at the $33 million plant that opened last year.
Kyocera officials expect that by 2012, production of solar panels at the plant will grow more than fourfold, from 175,000 panels to 750,000, or enough
to supply 42,600 homes a year. That will lead to some 600 new jobs, executives said.
Some maquiladora sectors have been hard-hit by the drop in U.S. consumer demand. Auto manufacturing, auto parts and electronics are among those that
have suffered the most, said Jorge Eduardo Mendoza, an economist at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a think tank in Tijuana. But the peso's decline
relative to the dollar has helped others.
Those specializing in medical supplies and alternative energy are “resisting the effects of the crisis,” Mendoza said. By stopping at Kyocera, “the
message is that Mexico is still an attractive country for investment, the northern border is a region that can attract foreign capital,” he said.
As the president toured the plant, a crowd of a few dozen job applicants waited outside. Jobs were once plentiful but are becoming harder to find,
they said.
“We sleep outside maquiladoras, hoping that they will give us work,” said Fabiola Mendoza Nuñez, searching for a job to support herself and her child.