MEXICO CITY, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Spurring private investment in Mexico's energy sector could help fix the industry's most pressing problems, including a potential lack of supply and reserves, a private think tank said on Sunday.
To that end, the Private Sector Center for Economic Studies, which belongs to the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), Mexico's largest business confederation, welcomed a recent agreement between the government and private sector to ease investment in energy.
The agreement is "a good sign," the center said, but it is "essential" to provide investors with legal certainty and rights.
"In addition to spurring faster growth and generating quality jobs, private investment can help the public sector free up resources to channel towards social benefit programs," the center said.
"Working together in all sectors, under a scheme of ... legal certainty, will certainly help reach the goals of growth and wellbeing that the federal government has proposed," said the center.
On June 24, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with leaders of the CCE and the Mexican Business Council, and they agreed to work together to establish "clear rules" for investment in the national energy sector.
Lopez Obrador's administration is looking to put in place new rules for private sector participation that would replace energy reforms carried out by his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto, which opened the state-run industry to private investment.
