The policy of readjustment between the public and private sectors in Mexico comes under the definition of the country's development model, a process in which the priority traditionally given to import substitution would go instead to international competitiveness. The resulting structural changes include two aspects. First, they are intended to rescale the public sector by reducing the number of quasi-public firms. This objective is being pursued by closing them, letting them go to the wall, transferring them to regional entitites or selling them to the private sector. Second, through industrial restructuring, the firms kept in the public sector must be modernised, balance their books and become competitive. The readjustment policy is still in a transitional phase for, in addition to the shortcomings of the techniques used and the lack of transparency, this process is encountering opposition from both the "social" sector and a part of the politicial establishment. |