With a gross national product (GNP) of around 750 billion US dollars (2005), today Mexico is one of the world’s largest economies. It is also the largest trading nation in Latin America: According to statistics from Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, the country’s 28 percent export rate puts it in ninth place in the world’s export rankings. Eighty percent of Mexican exports come from industrial manufacturing, around 12.5 percent from crude oil and refinery products, plus a meager 3 percent from agricultural produce. Dependence on the USA is still great: Mexico does around 70 percent of its foreign trade with the United States. However, Mexico also has a network of free trade agreements with over 40 countries, among them the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU). “In general, the most important macro-economic indicators are showing that the country is making a good economic recovery,” is how Jorge Castro-Valle K., Mexico’s ambassador to Germany, reported the situation at the presentation of the study “Mexico 2020: Tequila sunrise. A medium-term growth perspective” to Deutsche Bank in Berlin.
Mexico’s prospering economy is increasing demand in many areas of technology – opportunities that are consistently seized by G&D’s subsidiary Giesecke & Devrient de México S.A. de C.V., founded way back in 1958. “Businesses and public sector organizations are increasingly realizing the importance of security when it comes to financial transactions and identification,” says Fernando Delgado Corona, Marketing Coordinator at G&D de México. “We are registering a higher demand in particular for biometric elements and smart cards.” This applies equally to industry and the public sector: public transport, for example, has installed automated payment systems. G&D de México produces national ID cards for the Mexican education ministry, ID cards being a product that is attracting increasing interest from industry as well. “Products such as ID, transit and PKI are also proving very promising market segments,” adds Delgado Corona.
Other growth opportunities can be found in the telecommunications and banking sectors. America Movil, the leading mobile network operator in Latin America, is represented in Mexico through the Telcel brand. Past competition with Telefónica, Latin America’s second largest operator, has led to steady expansion, which G&D de México uses to its own advantage: “Innovations like roaming, multitasking and security are motivating customers to switch to the GSM standard,” says Delgado Corona. “Mexican banks are also constantly bringing out new products, like imitation translucent, minicards, special form factors, etc. In this environment, there are always plenty of good opportunities for placing our products.”
To cope with all this growth, early in 2005 G&D de México decided to move to a new production facility to the north of Mexico City.
Currently, this plant produces commercial cards, chip and magnetic stripe Banking cards, scratch off cards, memory cards, and SIM or GSM cards. It also produces and personalizes chip card and magnetic stripe cards for the banking sector.
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