• INVOLVEMENT: Singapore will start exploring how to deepen its engagement in Southern Mexico where a Singapore government-owned consultancy, Surbana Jurong, is developing a masterplan for an interoceanic corridor at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a key project for the López Obrador Administration.
• DEEPENING: During a visit of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Mexico this week, both countries agreed to explore “logistics, finance and port management” in Tehuantepec where Mexico seeks to modernize a railway plus the ports of Coatzacoalcos in the Atlantic and Salina Cruz in the Pacific.
• GEOPOLITICS: “Singapore … has good relations with both US and China. What we don’t want is to get into trouble taking sides with one hegemonic country or another. So, if there is a third country that has good relations with everyone… it makes things easier”, sad President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
• BUDGET: In 2019, the Mexican Congress allocated USD 77.4 million for the construction of the interoceanic corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and it is expected that for 2020, the level of resources approved for this project will reach at least USD 164.8 million.
