Monday, September 8, 2008

Message from President Felipe Calderón as Part of the Second State of the Union Address

Infrastructure I and II

I (September 2)

Infrastructure is crucial to living better.

It improves people’s living standards, makes the economy more competitive and, above all, creates jobs in construction, increases economic growth and also helps reduce poverty.

This will be the government of infrastructure, because we aim to increase investment in it by raising it to historic levels: In other words, investment will rise from 3% to over 5% of the Gross Domestic Product in annual investment; that is, $500 billion pesos a year in investment in infrastructure to improve living standards.

That is why it is crucial to combine efforts of the federal government, state governments and society. In other words, we need to combine public and private investment.

That is why this year we created the National Infrastructure Fund, a fund that will enable us to multiply projects and combine public and private investment.

During the first six months of this year we have spent over $190 billion pesos, in other words, 16% more than last year.

And what about roads?

Last year, in 2007, we modernized 435 km of federal highways. This year we are modernizing twice as many kilometers as last year.

Some of the projects we have already completed or are modernizing include the following:

We completed the Tejocotal-Nuevo Necaxa stretch, which forms part of a key highway axis from Mexico to Tuxpan.

We completed the new Morelia-Salamanca highway, and expanded the Atlacomulco-Maravatío stretch of the Mexico-Guadalajara highway to four lanes.

We modernized the Tepic-Villa Unión highway, the last stretch between Mexico and Nogales that needed to be modernized.

We completed the first stretch of the Arriaga-Ocozocoautla highway in Chiapas. We also modernized the road from Pachuca to Tulancingo, and built a new highway from Amozoc to Perote and the Perote flyover.

We also constructed a new access road to the Port of Veracruz, increased the highway from Mexicali to San Luis Río Colorado to four lanes, and modernized the road from Irapuato to La Piedad as well as the Tecpan flyover in Guerrero, to mention just some examples of works that have been completed this year.

Above all, we continued building or embarked on major new projects. These include the Mazatlán-Durango Highway, which will cross the Sierra Madre Occidental and link the northern states to the Pacific Ocean. This highway will allow us to build a major corridor from Mazatlán to Matamoros.

We also speeded up the progress of and will soon complete Mexico City's Northern Arch. This road will directly link the Mexico-Querétaro to the Mexico-Puebla road and therefore promote the development of the states of Mexico, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala and Puebla through this new highway corridor.

We began work on the Nuevo Necaxa-Ávila Camacho-Tihuatlán stretch, the last one required to complete the freeway that will reduce the journey from Mexico to Tuxpan to three hours from the six it took previously.

We also began new highway projects. One important project, for example, will enable us to reduce the journey from Oaxaca City to Huatulco from the current seven hours to less than three hours.

We began expanding the Nueva Italia-Apatzingán, Michoacán highway to four lanes and are also modernizing major stretches of highway for example from Rioverde to Ciudad Valles in La Huasteca, and another from San Luis Potosí to Zacatecas, and we will also launch another long-awaited project from Zacatecas to Saltillo.

We also expanded the Tapachula road to the border with Guatemala in Ciudad Hidalgo, and we are obviously fixing other major stretches of road such as the Mexico-Acapulco highway, which was in great need of repair.

Let’s continue investing in infrastructure; let’s continue building a stronger Mexico with better road links. A Mexico in which we will all be able to live better.

Thank you.

II (September 4)

Mexicans:

The purpose of my government is for all Mexicans to live better. That is why one of my priorities has been infrastructure, in other words, more and better roads, ports, dams, potable water systems, wastewater treatment, more projects for generating or producing electricity, oil and gas, more electricity networks for isolated community, more country roads and many other works.

In order for the economy to keep growing and creating jobs, we need to connect Mexico to the world. That is why we modernized the ports of Coatzacoalcos, Salina Cruz and Veracruz, and are also building four new international bridges, including the Reynosa-Anzaldúas Bridge.

With works such as these, we want to turn Mexico into a hub for trade and world investment between Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.

And what are we doing at airports?

This year we finished Terminal 2 of the Mexico City Airport, we are building an airport in Puerto Peñasco on the Sea of Cortez, and we will build a new airport in the Riviera Maya in Palenque, as well as expanding airports such as those in Toluca and Cuernavaca.

There is good news for Mexico City inhabitants as far as railroad transport is concerned. This year the Suburban Train from Buenavista to Cuautitlán began operating. It will transport over one hundred million passengers a year, reducing the journey times from three and a half hours a day to 45 minutes for the round trip.

We also began building two more suburban trains, from Chalco to Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl and another from Ecatepec to the Martín Carrera Metro station, for all those living in the east of Mexico City.

We are also working hard in the field of energy and electricity. This year the El Cajón reservoir, which cost over $8 billion pesos, started operating, as did the Tamazunchale power station, which cost $5 billion pesos.

The El Cajón and Tamazunchale reservoirs are both the largest of their kind in Latin America, and we have already started work on the La Yesca reservoir, also in the state of Nayarit.

This year we also expanded electricity coverage in rural towns and popular neighborhoods, taking electricity to over 350,000 Mexicans.

As for water, what we are doing, in addition to taking potable water to over 900 communities that previously lacked safe drinking water supplies, is restoring or expanding the water supply capacity in major cities such as Hermosillo and Acapulco.

It is not only important to obtain water but also to treat it and clean it so that it can be returned to nature. During this administration, we have started 86 new wastewater treatment plants such as those in Morelia, Oaxaca and Durango, and we repaired another 12.

We began the process of constructing the East Tunnel in Mexico City. This is the most important hydraulic work for the capital in the past 30 years, and will cost approximately $13 billion pesos.

This will eliminate the risk of catastrophic flooding for Mexico City’s inhabitants.

All these works will enable Mexicans to live better, promote the solid growth of our economy to compete with and beat the rest of the world, and also enable us to create the jobs we so need.

Let’s continue investing in infrastructure. Let’s continue building a stronger Mexico with better road links; a Mexico in which we can all live better.

Thank you.

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Presidency of the Republic, September 2 and 4, 2008, Mexico City

Translation Presidency of the Republic