By José Ángel de la Paz
Supporting entrepreneurship and SMEs, as well as governance models that promote reflecting on the purpose of business, is what Salvador Alva, president of Tec de Monterrey, and Ignacio de la Vega, dean of EGADE Business School and the Undergraduate Business School at Tecnológico de Monterrey, suggested as part of the National Conference for Economic Recovery organized by the Business Coordinating Council (CCE for its initials in Spanish).
At the roundtable entitled "Recovery in the medium and long term", coordinated by Coparmex, Alva pointed out that entrepreneurship creates jobs, wealth, and, therefore, social and economic welfare.
"In Mexico, we don't have an entrepreneur-friendly environment. We must digitize the processes faced by an entrepreneur," he said.
El emprendimiento genera empleos, riqueza, y por ende, bienestar social y económico. En México no tenemos un entorno amigable para emprender. Debemos digitalizar los procesos a los que se enfrenta un emprendedor: Salvador Alva Gómez (@Salvador) #AvanzandoJuntosYEnPaz pic.twitter.com/4vLpLItPrr
— Coparmex Nacional (@Coparmex) April 29, 2020
Meanwhile, De la Vega agreed on the need to promote digitalization and competitiveness programs to support entrepreneurs, in order to contribute to diversity, job creation, collective wealth, and innovation in the country.
"The public and private sectors must push forward an urgent reindustrialization plan; an agile plan with high impact, aimed at designing opportunities for Mexico in a post-COVID-19 scenario and at securing the country in the economic, commercial and financial spheres," he added.
The dean discussed the creation of a "recovery trust", made up of contributions from the banking system and the pension system in the form of stock certificates, to channel financing to SMEs with better financial conditions, in order to preserve their viability and jobs.
"It is estimated that at least half of the 4 million SMEs in Mexico will be in danger of bankruptcy by early fall," he noted.
In addition, he called for a national pact to reduce income tax by 50% during the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years, capped at 10 million pesos, as fiscal measure to support medium-sized companies that meet their tax payments.
Sin diálogo, sin colaboración, entre todos, no existe un México con potencia de futuro. Debemos salvaguardar a México para que haya una recuperación firme y prolongada que no profundice los males que ya hoy nos aquejan: @Ignaveg #AvanzandoJuntosYEnPaz pic.twitter.com/tkybmRSSFp
— Coparmex Nacional (@Coparmex) April 29, 2020
Alva and De la Vega participated in a round table moderated by Gustavo de Hoyos, national president of Coparmex, which also included interventions by legislators, officials, academics and business people, such as Josefina Vázquez Mota, Margarita Zavala, Enrique de la Madrid, Jorge Castañeda, Rocío Abreu González, Claudio X. González, Javier Corral, Vanessa Rubio, and Luis Carlos Ugalde, among others.
The National Conference for Economic Recovery was organized by the CCE with the aim of building, through a total of 11 roundtables, a national agreement between the federal government and the private sector to address the COVID-19 crisis in Mexico.