Thread: Mexico has money ready for expatriate investment

Mexico has money ready for expatriate investment

By Mariana Alvarado
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.02.2009

Hoping to entice expatriates to invest in start-up businesses south of the border, the Mexican government is putting up more than $8 million this year to help them open a store, bakery or other small business in their hometowns.

Known as the Productive Assets Project, Mexico's aim is to help its citizens living in the U.S. get a project up and running with the hope that if expatriates return to Mexico, they have a sound business.

The government will match up to $21,500 to help start a home-based business or even construction on a shop, Martha Esquivel, of the Mexican social development office in Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview.

To be eligible, expatriates must be Mexican citizens and members of a committee of countrymen living abroad. There are no restrictions on the type of business that can qualify for the funding, Esquivel said.

The financing is not a loan, said Esquivel. The interest-free government award doesn't have to be repaid and doesn't require collateral.

Instead, the money awarded by the government must be reinvested in an expatriate club within three years, Esquivel said.

The program is an expansion of the Three-for-One program, which provides money from the city, state and federal governments to match dollars sent by groups in the U.S. for community projects, such as refurbishing a church, building a school or creating a park.
Six of those groups formed in Tucson last year, according to the Mexican Consulate in Tucson.

One club with members from Sonora is investing about $14,000 to construct a dining hall for poor kids in Nogales, Sonora; another plans to spend $20,000 to rebuild a church and the adjoining plaza in Santa Ana, Sonora.

Contact reporter Mariana Alvarado at 573-4597 or malvarado@azstarnet.com.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/287028.php

What no open borders for Americans to come on down?

They're probably thinking "This would be a good way to establish Mexican multinational corporations." Some family members would stay behind in the US to operate the branches there.