The Inter-American Development Bank estimates Latin America must invest 3–5% of GDP annually to close its infrastructure gap. At the FII Priority Summit, experts confirmed nearshoring is accelerating demand — especially in Mexico, where U.S. gas imports hit 6.638 Bcf/d in 2025. Power and water shortages remain top bottlenecks, prompting behind-the-meter solutions. Successful PPPs like FIEMEX — powering 15% of Mexico’s electricity — show scalable models, while Ecuador’s dollarization and Venezuela’s stalled oil opportunity highlight how institutional trust determines capital flow. For supply chain professionals, infrastructure readiness is now a core site-selection criterion.
According to mexicobusiness.news, the Inter-American Development Bank estimates Latin America must invest 3–5% of GDP annually just to close its existing infrastructure gap and sustain long-term competitiveness — a figure central to investor deliberations at the FII Priority Summit’s Latin America forum.
Mexico at the Center of Nearshoring-Driven Demand
Juan Carlos Zepeda, Partner at MIP Real Assets and CEO of Quantum Energía, framed Mexico as the primary geopolitical beneficiary of U.S.–China decoupling. “Since 2023, Mexico has become the main source of US imports, and together with Canada we are the main destination of US exports,” he said. This strategic shift is already operational: companies are actively developing industrial parks in Mexico, driving demand for energy, water, and transport infrastructure. MIP’s investment mandate explicitly targets this wave — deploying infrastructure funds to “power nearshoring” across multiple segments.
Zepeda underscored natural gas as a critical, often overlooked enabler: “Never forget about natural gas.” With the U.S. as the world’s largest producer and Mexico its largest importer, pipeline gas imports reached a record 6.638 Bcf/d in 2025 — highlighting both deep interdependence and the scale of infrastructure required to support industrial growth.
Power and Water: The Twin Bottlenecks
Thor Equities Group Chairman and CEO Joe Sitt identified power as the “first challenge” for on-the-ground nearshoring execution. “The national grid needs to be expanded,” he noted, adding that private demand is outpacing public grid development — prompting widespread adoption of behind-the-meter distributed generation. Water availability followed closely as the second major constraint influencing industrial site selection.
World Travel and Tourism Council Chairman Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio reinforced the urgency: “This is the time for Mexico, and for Latin America.” But he issued a stark qualifier: “The only problem standing in the way is Mexico and Latin America themselves.” His point echoed across the panel — the principal risk is not external geopolitics, but internal execution, governance, and institutional confidence.
PPP Success and Regional Contrasts
The panel spotlighted public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a scalable model to bridge financing gaps without overburdening sovereign balance sheets. Zepeda cited FIEMEX — a sovereign infrastructure fund where MIP manages 65% of the equity alongside Mexican pension capital and a sovereign fund — as a working example. FIEMEX currently powers approximately 15% of Mexico’s electricity, making it one of the country’s largest infrastructure PPPs and a rare case of internationally financed, domestically anchored delivery.
In contrast, Venezuela’s presence at the summit — with representatives signaling openness to oil and gas investment — served as a cautionary counterpoint. While Zepeda called Venezuelan hydrocarbon reserves an “absolutely right opportunity,” he stressed that institutional and legal preconditions must materialize before capital can realistically flow.
Ecuador offered another instructive model. Vice President María José Pinto highlighted dollarization — adopted in 2000 — as a decades-long foundation of macroeconomic trust that continues to bolster investor confidence. She also described concurrent investments in social cohesion and industrial capacity, including Ecuador’s first national museum as a deliberate act linking cultural identity and tourism infrastructure.
Practitioner Implications for Global Supply Chains
For supply chain professionals, the summit’s takeaways are concrete and actionable. Nearshoring to Mexico is no longer aspirational — it is generating measurable, real-time infrastructure pressure on power grids and water systems. Companies evaluating LATAM expansion must now factor in not only labor and logistics costs, but also the reliability and scalability of local energy and water supply — often requiring bespoke solutions like on-site generation or desalination partnerships. The FIEMEX model demonstrates how blended capital (sovereign, pension, private) can accelerate delivery, suggesting opportunities for procurement and sourcing teams to engage early with PPP-backed infrastructure providers. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s stalled potential and Ecuador’s dollarization dividend illustrate how macro-institutional stability directly shapes supply chain risk profiles — reinforcing that due diligence must extend beyond factory floors to central bank policy, regulatory continuity, and utility governance.
Source: mexicobusiness.news
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
