VZCZCXRO8429
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #1884/01 1001737
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101737Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0154
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 001884 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/MEX, WHA/EPSC 
STATE PASS USAID FOR ROBERT KAHN 
TREASURY FOR IA MEXICO DESK - JASPER HOEK 
COMMERCE FOR ITA/MAC/NAFTA ANDREW RUDMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN PGOV MX
SUBJECT: MADRAZO'S ECONOMIC POLICIES: TWO VIEWS 
 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified, entire text. 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY.  In separate meetings, two factions of 
the PRI's economic brain trust offered competing economic 
visions of the GOM's likely economic policy should  PRI 
candidate Roberto Madrazo win the presidency.  Jorge Chavez 
Presa, Madrazo's chief economic advisor, described Madrazo's 
platform as based on large structural reforms.  According to 
Chavez Presa, public finance reform, pension reform, labor 
reform, and competitiveness reforms (including reforms in the 
energy sector) are crucial to spur economic growth and 
development in Mexico.  However, two members of the PRI's 
more traditional statist wing argued that economic growth is 
attainable without structural reforms.  Several names have 
been floated for key economic positions in a Madrazo 
administration, including Chavez Presa as Secretary of 
Energy.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Chavez Presa met with Econoff and Poloff March 10 
to discuss the economic plan of PRI presidential candidate 
Robert Madrazo.  According to Chavez Presa, increasing public 
and private saving will spur national private investment and 
increase foreign direct investment (FDI).  Government 
investment in infrastructure will increase living standards 
and improve public security.  He also suggested that clusters 
of development should be created, perhaps in 
telecommunications and energy to encourage regional 
development and promote small business. 
 
PUBLIC FINANCE REFORM 
--------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Chavez Presa identified public finance reform to 
Econoff as the single most important reform. If elected, 
Madrazo would simplify the tax system in order to increase 
the tax base by fostering a "culture of contribution."  He 
noted that the PRI-supported lower corporate tax rate did not 
result in lower tax revenues.  Chavez Presa told Econoff that 
an overhaul of the financial system is needed at all three 
levels of government.  Currently, 98 percent of all taxes are 
collected by the federal government, leaving few resources 
for state and local initiatives.  Chavez Presa said that 
Madrazo feels there is too much distance between the federal 
government that obtains the tax and the state and local 
governments that know what their populations need.  There is 
little transparency in the government's accounting and 
decision making  Chavez Presa noted that as more individuals 
see their tax dollars being spent on projects that their 
community needs, they will be more inclined to pay.  He did 
note to Emboffs that an effective enforcement system is 
needed and that it may take a few years before witnessing 
results provides an impetus to pay. 
 
MODERNIZE LABOR INSTITUTIONS AND PENSIONS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Chavez Presa stressed that labor institutions must 
be modernized to be transparent and accountable.  Pay 
increases, he feels, should be tied to increases in 
productivity.  Chavez Presa went on to tell Emboffs that 
Mexico should analyze other countries where workers move 
between companies and between the private and public sector. 
Portability is needed in order to permit workers to easily 
transition between jobs, with their pension.  Chavez Presa 
stated that pension reform is an issue that state governments 
must be involved with noting that the state of Nuevo Laredo 
is the only state who has already revised its laws.  COMMENT. 
 The National Governors Conference, CONAGO, came up with an 
integral fiscal reform package that covered many of these 
issues. The proposal was defeated in Congress by the PRI and 
PRD.  END COMMENT. 
 
COMPETITIVENESS NEEDED - PARTICULARLY IN ENERGY 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Reforms to increase competitiveness are needed to 
attract and keep FDI while lowering costs to avoid FDI flight 
according to Chavez Presa.  He identified the energy and 
telecommunications sectors as areas where competitiveness is 
key.  The most forceful comment Chavez Presa made to Emboffs 
was that reform in the energy sector does not/not imply 
privatization.  Chavez Presa suggested that regional economic 
policy in Mexico is not controlled by the government but by 
CFE and Pemex when they choose where to develop their 
facilities.  The effect of this, he claims, is migration from 
 
MEXICO 00001884  002 OF 002 
 
 
areas where the energy giants have not developed.  Madrazo, 
he feels, had firsthand experience with this as Governor and 
will be prepared to deal with it.  Chavez Presa explained 
that Pemex uses a "Soviet style" plan that is not compatible 
with the market economy of Mexico.  Mexico's fiscal system is 
determined by cyclical gas prices and the government creates 
energy policy in order to compensate for a weak tax system. 
Chavez Presa stated that Madrazo will permit competition in 
the energy sector where alliances will be permitted to form 
with the private sector where it is not efficient for Pemex 
to complete a project alone. 
 
SOME PRIISTAS DO NOT AGREE 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) On March 8 Emboffs met with Ricardo Carrillo 
Arronte and Jesus Alberto Cano Velez of the public finance 
consulting firm "Aregional."  Both are economic advisors to 
the PRI.  Carrillo and Cano are both also affiliated with the 
PRI's more traditional, statist wing, and are not as close to 
Madrazo as Chavez Presa.  Both discounted Chavez Presa's view 
that structural reforms are necessary in order to stimulate 
growth.  According to Carillo and Cano, a Madrazo government 
could save three to four percent of GDP by reducing 
expenditures on a variety of government programs.  This money 
could then be invested on infrastructure, creating new jobs 
and providing an impetus to the private sector to invest in 
infrastructure.  COMMENT.  This alternative for 
infrastructure investment was presented to Chavez Presa, who 
responded that any PRIista who felt that structural reform 
was not necessary understood neither Madrazo's platform nor 
what the country needs.  END COMMENT. 
 
POTENTIAL CANDIDATES 
-------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Carillo and Cano suggested several possible 
candidates for cabinet positions in a Madrazo government. 
Former Ambassador and Deputy Foreign Secretary Andres 
Rozental was mentioned for Foreign Relations with former 
Ambassador to Cuba and Austria Roberta Lajous, Senator Silvia 
Hernandez and Deputy Jose Alberto Aguilar all being mentioned 
as Foreign Relations Undersecretaries.  Chavez Presa, who is 
very close to Madrazo, was mentioned as a candidate for 
Secretary of Energy due to the success he had as 
 
SIPDIS 
Undersecretary for Energy Policy in the Zedillo 
administration.  Guillermo Ortiz (current head of the Bank of 
Mexico), Francisco Suarez Davila (past Mexican Ambassador to 
the OECD and PRI deputy who advanced fiscal reform), Santiago 
Levy (former director of Mexico's Social Security Institute), 
Agustin Carstens (former U/S of finance and current IMF 
Deputy Director) and Pedro Aspe (former finance Secretary) 
were all mentioned as potential candidates for Finance 
Secretary. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶8.  While many of Madrazo's proposals target areas of the 
economy that have been identified by many individuals, 
including some of the other candidates, as in need of 
improvement, it is unclear how easily Madrazo would be able 
to implement his new policies, particularly if Chavez Presa 
is appointed as Energy Secretary as some have speculated. 
There is clearly some dissension in the PRI party itself on 
the correct manner to implement economic reforms.  Chavez 
Presa himself openly admitted that some of the key proposals 
such as tax reform will take several years to develop. 
 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity 
 
GARZA