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tion of warehousing systems to strengthen guarantee programs and make it attractive for market investors to acquire certificates of deposit for commodities.
B. SHARING BEST PRACTICES AND TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
A second critical component of the Partnership's strategy is to expand access to information and know-how. For example, the strategy will focus on assisting Mexican businesses - small- and medium-sized enterprises in particular - to identify new opportunities that will lead to job creation, and ultimately community development, in Mexico. To meet these aims, the Partnership has devised new ways to facilitate the exchange of information between U.S. and Mexican business leaders and government officials:
-- The U.S. Treasury Department will coordinate the provision of technical assistance to Mexico's Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal (SHF) to encourage the securement of mortgages and the creation of a secondary mortgage market in Mexico. In these efforts, Treasury will draw upon experts with experience in housing finance from private financial institutions, government-sponsored agencies (like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae), and the U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise and Oversight (OFHEO).
-- Texas A&M University will direct an effort to work with appropriate Mexican and U.S. universities to develop agricultural extension courses for small- to medium-sized farms and agribusinesses (including co-operatives) on marketing, finance, management and negotiation.
-- The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture will examine the feasibility of launching a "greenhouse" program in regions with inadequate water supplies to promote cultivation of vegetables and flower products for which Mexico has a comparative advantage.
-- The U.S. State Department will work with the Mexican Consejo Nacional Para La Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA), the Programa de Apoyo Al Diseno Artesanal (PROADA), the Mexican Secretary of Economy and BANCOMEXT to establish a network of contacts for indigenous Mexican
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-- NAFIN, in coordination with SBA, will provide financial and investment training to Mexican small business and hometown associations in the United States in areas with significant Mexican migrant populations. As a pilot project, NAFIN has begun work with Mexican hometown associations representing the states of Puebla, Guanajuato and Zacatecas.
-- USAID, ExIm, OPIC, SBA, NAFIN and BANCOMEXT will work together to offer technical assistance to develop new financial products.
C. BUILDING CAPACITY FOR GROWTH
For Mexico to take full advantage of the benefits of its open markets and build capacity for future growth, the Partnership aims to promote investment in Mexico's physical infrastructure and its human capital. Better technological and social infrastructure play an important role in facilitating growth.
Establishing incentives for private-sector participation, such as increased insurance for larger-scale private investments in infrastructure, enabling better and lower cost-sharing of information and coordination of business activity, and facilitating the exchange of innovations are all critical to long-term infrastructure growth.
PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE:
Given projected population growth and associated demands for municipal services, Mexico will look to attract investment to smaller infrastructure projects in more isolated areas as well as in the large-scale undertakings already on the drawing board in key sectors such as transportation, electric power, and telecommunications.
-- The Partnership supports enhanced U.S.-Mexican cooperation to identify critical Mexican infrastructure needs in such areas as airports, roads, ports and customs facilities to expedite trade.
-- TDA will fund feasibility studies for priority infrastructure projects developed by the private sector or the government.
-- TDA will fund orientation visits to promote Mexican infrastructure projects to U.S. companies and to facilitate the exchange of
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include the development of model documents and legal and administrative infrastructure to assure cross-border recourse.
-- The Partnership will encourage U.S. philanthropic entities to design, finance and/or construct low-income housing.
SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESS: POWERFUL ENGINE OF EMPLOYMENT GROWTH
-- The U.S. Export-Import Bank (ExIm Bank), the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA), the Mexican Nacional Financiera S.A. (NAFIN), the Mexican Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior, S.N.C. (BANCOMEXT), and the Secretariat of Hacienda and Public Credit (SHCP) will develop a specific list of pilot projects including: franchising, retail distribution services, housing, and regional tourism development.
-- The Partnership will identify ways of improving the efficacy and sustainability of small and micro-enterprise finance activities (savings, credit and other financial services) in Mexico. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and appropriate Mexican institutions, such as the Program of Microcredit of the Secretary of Economy and the Popular Banking Program of BANSEFI, will cooperate to assist in the expansion of capitalization and technical support to the small and micro-enterprise finance sector, with the objective of assuring financially self-sustaining institutions. Areas of cooperation will include developing procedures for small and micro-enterprise finance regulation under the new Popular Savings and Credit Law, as well as exploration of new methods to increase capital, including use of remittances, portfolio guarantees, savings, and capital markets.
FARMERS: A VITAL COMPONENT OF REGIONAL ECONOMIES
-- The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Mexican Agriculture Secretariat will encourage public-private partnerships in areas including farm credit financing and extension of technical advice and expertise. They will also encourage moderniza
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