In an Americas Quarterly web exclusive, journalist Nathaniel Parish Flannery writes about Mexico’s emerging IT hub, centered in the state of Jalisco. Read an excerpt below and visit www.AmericasQuarterly.org for the full article.
Mexico is quietly emerging as a capital of Latin America’s growing information technology (IT) outsourcing industry.
More than 600,000 people already work in IT, with another 65,000 new professionals graduating each year from the dozens of technical and engineering schools clustered throughout Mexico. The industry includes more than 2,000 IT companies, ranging in size from start-ups to veterans like Hildebrando, Softek, HP, IBM, and Intel.
At the center of Mexico 2.0 is Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco, located in the agave cactus lined hills six hours north of Mexico City.
Tech entrepreneurs from across Mexico come to the city’s Centro del Software project—an “incubator” for small-scale tech start-ups. Established in 2006, there are now 34 companies and 700 people working in the Centro del Software. The government provides the nascent tech companies with subsidized rent as well as technical and business advisory services. Each company works with the Instituto Jalisciense de Tecnologías de la Información (IJALTI), whose mission is to promote the city’s expanding IT and business process exporting (BPO) sectors. The start-ups also pool resources and collaborate to handle projects for large, global clients….
Click here to read the full article.
Nathaniel Parish Flannery is a New York City-based writer who has worked on projects in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, India, China, and Chile and written articles for Forbes, The Atlantic, World Policy Journal, The Nation, Global Post, and Lapham’s Quarterly. He is working toward a Master’s degree in International Affairs at Columbia University. For coverage of Mexico, follow him on Twitter: @LatAmLENS.