Secretary for Economic Promotion of Colima, Carlos Guillermo Aguirre Ceballos Courtesy State of Colima

"The state is open for business," declares Carlos Guillermo Aguirre Ceballos, the Secretary for Economic Promotion in the State of Colima. And the state, one of Mexico's smallest, backs up his claim with a large array of investment incentives anchored in the state's 1998 Law for Economic Development.

Many of these are standard incentives -- reduction or temporary exemption from state taxes, sale or lease -- under certain conditions, even grant -- of state-owned real estate or facilities, partial payment of personnel training, infrastructure support to set up new businesses, export promotion support. However, Colima officials pledge to make these incentives readily and directly accessible.

For its part, the state looks at certain criteria for allocating these incentives. First among these is the number of jobs generated and salary levels. Other criteria include the amount of investment, the time period between the initial investment and beginning of business operations, implementation of personnel training programs, project location, environmental protection and improvement, water consumption and treatment, technological development, export volume, integration and strengthening of supply chains, and use of local suppliers.

Colima aims to simultaneously build on the strength of its traditional activities in its port, Manzanillo, agribusiness and mining as well as more recent industrial activities in electronics, automotive, and textiles and also development of its tourism industry.

The state has detailed an extensive list of activities it is targeting in each of these areas. In automotive, for instance, it wants to develop regional clusters that take advantage of port infrastructure. In textiles, it is looking for investment in everything from fashion to yarn and thread manufacturing. In the field of electronics, Colima has targeted software development and component manufacture for investment.

In the already well-developed agro industry sector, Colima promotes opportunities for modular pre-cooling units, tropical fruit processing and packaging plants, milk pasteurizing plants, and cattle and poultry production. The mining sector has room for investment in integrated iron and steel production for the export market, ceramic and stone tile manufacturing, and limestone extraction, among others. The state's extensive forest area is looking for new investment in wood and cellulose extraction, tropical wood production, and other activities.

Among the advantages Colima offers to investors is an abundant supply of electrical energy, a resource that is often expensive and problematic in Mexico. The state has generating capacity of 1,900 megawatts and currently sells 92 percent of its production outside the state. Another important resource is water, with three main river systems and an infrastructure of dams and reservoirs.

The state has two airports, an international facility at Manzanillo and a domestic terminal in the capital city of Colima. It also considers the Guadalajara International Airport, Mexico's second largest and 130 miles away, as part of its airport infrastructure.

Because of the port in Manzanillo, Colima also has a well-developed highway and rail infrastructure feeding into the country's main industrial corridor from Mexico City through Guadalajara to Monterrey. A modern fiber-optic network supports the telecommunications infrastructure as well.