(Photo : Twitter)



Mexico President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently announced that there would no longer be huge economic incentive programs as the nation is going through the threat of the crisis prompted by COVID-19, which is almost definitely unlike any it has encountered in the past 100 years.

Rather, the national leader said his administration is expanding more on social programs and will keep on propping up the heavily indebted state-owned oil firm, as well as deepen the austerity campaign of the government, not to mention, doing anything and everything possible to prevent becoming more indebted. 

According to President López Obrador, there is definitely a lesson they have learned well and cannot forget. He added, "An economic model" benefiting only the minorities does not produce general well-being, yet in contrast, engenders both violence and public misery.

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Additionally, the economic reactivation scheme stays constant with the priority of his administration to help the country's most susceptible areas by ensuring that people remain employed, that there is greater public spending on social welfare, and that there will be cost-cutting in the expansive administration.

Government Officials' Salaries Reduced

The president cited an example saying, the government bureaucrats' top level, from the undersecretaries up to him, will have reduced salaries, on top of the year-end bonuses which they have given up.

Aside from that, the president also promised to generate 2 million new jobs in the next nine months, and apparently implausible goal in a stationary economy and no other details have been given by him, on how he would go about the said new employment scheme.

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Moreover, President López Obrador put emphasis on his "signature infrastructure projects". More specifically, the Mexico City airport, a tourist train said to be circling the peninsula of Yucatan, and a new oil refinery, are all pushing through.

The said train, which has yet to start being constructed, the president said, "promises to generate roughly 30,000 jobs for each of the seven segments." Another program of the government includes developing construction works through paving roads, and improvement of drainage, to name two.

Criticisms from the Private Sector

Gustavo de Hoyos, president of Coparmex, a business owners' association, criticized the plan of the president saying the announcement he made had no relevant measure to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid an emergency, the businessman said, the nation leader read a so-called "piece of ideological propagation," criticizing apparitions from the past and neglecting his responsibility as head of state to UN.

Before the President's speech, Concoamin, another Mexican industries' association, cautioned via a statement that the pandemic could only lead to the worst recession in Mexico in a century.

More so, it called for support to the private sector, specifically the businesses, to prevent hundreds of thousands of them from shutting down. But until now, President López Obrador has more often than not, talked about the protection of Mexico's poorest and especially emphasized those who work in the informal half of the economy of the country.

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The nation leader has also praised Carlos Slim, a billionaire, for his pledge to not layoff any employee during a crisis. He also urged other companies to follow Slim's example. More so, the president also said that only those working in essential businesses should still go out and work, and that, those staying at home should still be paid.