Nuevo León: Leader of Industry 4.0 in Mexico

Nuevo León presents itself as Mexico’s leading industrial and 4.0- player at the Hannover Messe 2018. The State in the Northwest of Mexico is growing continuously and already contributes over 8% of the GDP (equivalent to 10% of the industrial GDP). Nuevo León is showcasing at Hannover Messe its unique ecosystem of multinational companies, clusters, government agencies, industrial parks and R&D centers.

Mexico‘s economy demonstrates solid growth and has turned into an open and diverse economy over the past ten years. This stable economic growth indicates that the Mexican economy still has a high potential and will continue to grow dynamically in the future. Especially the State of Nuevo León with more than 5 million inhabitants stands out as a national FDI, infrastructure and education champion. Leading companies are therefore already headquartered in Nuevo León, for instance SIEMENS, DAIMLER, LIEBHERR, GENERAL ELECTRIC, KIA, ACCENTURE, CARRIER and LEGO and have been researching and producing here for years. The State and its capital city Monterrey are located at the north-eastern region of México. Monterrey is considered the most important financial and industrial center, as well as the channel of entry and for the commercial exchange between the Northeastern Region of Mexico and the United States.

“Nuevo León has achieved to transform from a traditionally industrial region into a booming and modern economic region. Its unique ecosystem will play a vital role in the future competition in the Americas,“says Fernando Turner Davila, Minister of Economy Affairs of the State of Nuevo León. ”Hannover is the pacesetter for Industry 4.0 and we have to be there because Nuevo León was the first State to launch a holistic 4.0 initiative integrating government, leading companies, SMEs, academic institutions and innovation centers.”

“Nuevo León has achieved to transform from a traditionally industrial region into a booming and modern economic region. Its unique ecosystem will play a vital role in the future competition in America”. – Fernando Turner Davila, Minister of Economy Affairs of the State of Nuevo León

Manufacturing is Nuevo León´s top productive sector.

12 reasons for doing business in Nuevo León

• Key investment destination in Mexico – For the past 20 years, Nuevo León has been the leading attractor of Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico, hosting more than 3,500 companies capitalized abroad.
• Leading the way in Industry 4.0 – Nuevo León is taking a leadership role in Latin America by transforming conventional manufacturing into the smart factories of the future.

  The Nuevo León 4.0 initiative was introduced with the objective to modernize the production systems with a new business and manufacture model having advanced technology aligning efforts from private initiative, academy and Government towards a world-class digital platform. By that means, Nuevo León 4.0 promotes industrial development, employment and labor skills of high added value to potentiate future industrial sectors and develop an ecosystem to reposition the State as a national and international referent in economy and Industry 4.0. Through Nuevo León 4.0, the State of Nuevo León enables the development of technological skills, such as the cloud, robotics, simulations, additive manufacturing, Internet of Things, big data, advanced materials, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and informatics security.

• Productive, young, talented and skilled workforce – With 4% of the country’s population, Nuevo León contributes 8% to Mexico’s GDP.
• Diverse pool of suppliers – Nuevo León has a business ecosystem of more than 151,000 potential suppliers and partners.

  Crucial to mention is the cost advantage that the capital Monterrey provides in a global comparison. In the latest Competitive Alternatives study of KPMG Monterrey ranks 1st among 133 global cities with their relative business locations costs, focusing on the following sectors: Digital Services, R&D, Services, Corporate Services and Manufacturing.

• Location, location, location – Nuevo León has a direct border to the United States of America, providing our companies direct access to the world’s most important consumer market.

  The Corporation for the Development of the Border Zone of Nuevo León (Corporación para el Desarrollo de la Zona Fronteriza de Nuevo León, CODEFRONT), a decentralized State entity, is in charge of managing a number of border assets including the Puente Colombia bridge infrastructure which connects Nuevo León to Texas.

• Investment in tech and science – The Research and Technology Innovation Park (PIIT) located in Apodaca is one-of-a-kind in Latin America and Mexico’s only member of the Association of Universities Research Parks and the International Association of Science Parks. In Nuevo León there are more than 80 R&D centers that drive innovation to the next level.
• Educational Hub – Nuevo León is home of Mexico’s best-ranked private universities (ITESM) and of one of the largest engineering schools (UANL) in the region.

  It is important to recognize the efforts that its universities, especially the four most important universities of the State – Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), ITESM, Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) and Universidad Regiomontana (U-ERRE) – have made in order to contribute to the regional development. Besides the natural incorporation of the new industry 4.0 and information systems programs as part of their teaching and learning processes, most of the universities have also incorporated social and community programs. Such are technical and practical internships in businesses of several industries which are included into the students’ curricula activities in order to respond to the business and industrial sector’s needs.

• Top Industrial Infrastructure – With more than 150 industrial parks in the country, Nuevo León is the leading destination for infrastructure and logistics.

  Nuevo León is considered as the industrial capital of Mexico due to its 4,226 km of highways, 1,091 km of railroads, two International Airports, and a stable infrastructure in communications, transportation, energy, gas and coal deposits, and sufficient power generation plants.

• Strong local companies – Several of the most important Mexican companies have their headquarters in Nuevo León. Some of those firms, among them also CEMEX, ARCA, FEMSA, ALFA, FRISA, QUIMMCO, METALSA and KATCON, have become strong global players.
• Building global leading products – From laundry machines to cars and aerospace components – products made in Nuevo León are exported to the entire world.

  Manufacturing is Nuevo León´s top productive sector. It accounts for approx. 25% of the State´s GDP. The chief subsectors of manufacturing in Nuevo León are computing, electronic and transport equipment, the food industry, basic metallic industries, oil derivatives and coal.

• Unique cluster ecosystem – Nuevo León has 12 clusters representing its strategic sectors, among those the sectors Automotive, Home Appliances, Software, Energy and Aerospace.

  This existence of mature clusters is another appealing feature of the State´s economy, as those clusters have a number of aims including the formulation of strategic sector strategies rooted in coordination of academic institutions, the private sector and the government. Further aims of the named clusters include establishing a common private sector front to align actions, developing a long term sector strategy and matching the government projects with the real needs of industry and academia.

• A place to live, work, and play – In Nuevo León we value honesty and hard work and, as a State, we focus on public safety and security. That is demonstrated also by the Mercer study, which has named Monterrey to be the city with the highest quality of life in Mexico.