High Tech in Baja
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20030521-9999_1b21...
Baja aims to be a hub of software companies
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 21, 2003
TIJUANA ? Long reliant on maquiladoras and tourism, Baja California aims to expand its economic base by becoming a player in the booming world
software industry.
At a conference yesterday that drew dozens of participants from as far away as Florida, Canada and Brazil, Gov. Eugenio Elorduy and Mexican Economy
Secretary Fernando Canales Clariond agreed to promote the sector by working closely with industry and academic institutions.
Though Mexico's software sector is tiny ? it accounts for less than .1 percent of the gross domestic product ? the federal government aims to expand
it into a $5 billion market by 2010.
The United States now sends much of its software work to Pakistan and India, and Mexico is keen on snaring some of that business. One attraction is
that software production requires few capital expenditures other than computers and office space. The biggest investment would be in training workers.
"Our strategy is to keep these technicians and specialists from emigrating, so they carry out their work within the structure of Mexican businesses,"
said Canales Clariond.
Baja California aims to capture 10 percent of Mexico's projected market share, a move that would create 10,000 jobs in the region, said Octavio Garza
Fern?ndez, regional president for the National Chamber of the Electronic, Telecommunications and Computer Science Industries, or Canieti.
The conference, called Technological Encounter of the Americas, was organized by Canieti and the Quebec Council for Latin America, which promotes
development of the software sector in Mexico and other countries.
"We are certain that we Mexicans are capable of learning new technologies; we have shown that we can," said Claudio Bortoluz, Canieti's national
president.
By holding the conference in Tijuana, local software industry members hoped to establish the city as an important link for future growth in Latin
America.
Mexico currently has some 500 software companies nationwide, Canales Clariond said. Of those, 80 are in Baja California, most of them small and
medium-sized businesses with fewer than a dozen employees.
The other areas of Mexico with burgeoning software sectors include Mexico City and the states of Jalisco and Nuevo Leon. Tijuana's proximity to the
United States, the world's largest consumer of software services, makes it "an ideal location" for some of these businesses, said Canales Clariond.
The move to expand the software sector is a key component in the Baja California government's efforts to diversify the state's economy. The state has
identified 15 industry clusters that it wants to strengthen, and software is one of them.
Sergio Tagliaprieta Nassri, Baja California's Secretary for Economic Development, said his state offers a range of advantages including its physical
proximity to California, its shared time zone with the western United States and its large academic community.
"This is a general strategy for diversifying our business opportunities," Tagliaprieta said.
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