U.S. and Mexico Working Towards A New Cooperation on IT Sector

More than ever developed and developing nations are recognizing the importance on working together to increase their competitiveness in the world market, especially in an age where (IT) industry grows as it incentivizes growth, development, and modernization.

“All over the world, ICT has empowered individuals with unprecedented access to information and knowledge, with important consequences in terms of providing education and access to markets, of doing business, and of social interactions, among others. Moreover, by increasing productivity and therefore economic growth in developing countries, ICT can play a formidable role in reducing poverty and improving living conditions and opportunities for the poor.” Said Klaus Shwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum in a recent report published by his organization on the IT sector.

As this sector demands a global collaboration between nations, it couldn’t be more obvious that both the U.S. and Mexico are increasing their interaction trying to leverage their history as trading partners. Both Mexico and the U.S. have invested in recent years on projects that would increase R&D collaboration. Universities have worked on developing programs to prepare cross-cultural workforce and local governments have subsidized projects through incubators and tech clusters that would enable their entrepreneurs to innovate and sell their technologies both ways.

Mexico has shown impressive numbers in their work force and their growth in exports: “600,000 professionals in the IT industry, including about 400,000 professionals specializing in software. Furthermore, 65,000 new professionals graduate in the sector each year. The Mexican IT and Software Services market has registered sustained growth in recent years. Business Monitor estimates that the sector's market will reach US$10.2 billion in 2013. A.T. Kearney estimates that Mexican exports of IT services reached a value of US$3.16 billion in 2008, which meant annual growth of 26 percent." Click here to view latest numbers.

Experts in this sector have highlighted that in order to have a competitive partnership there are different issues that are still to be addressed, specifically in matters of creating cutting edge products and services, leveraging alliances for a cross‐border, cross‐cultural workforce and intellectual property and legal compliance under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The was never a better timing for TechAmerica, the University of North Texas and the Dallas Regional Chamber to host a United States / Mexico Technology Summit on September 29 and 30, 2010. The purpose of the summit will be to increase dialogue and to identify opportunities for collaboration between US and Mexican companies, to update and educate the business community about the resources and opportunities that exist in the two countries, and to identify best practices for companies seeking to take advantage of the benefits of international product development while developing their technologies closer to the United States.

For more information on international initiatives please contact Anakarina Piña at apina@dallaschamber.org or at (214) 750-5618.