Mexico’s Presidential Office for Investment Promotion, created by decree May 4 under Plan México, has authorized 22 projects worth more than US$8 billion in its first month, offering 30-day resolutions for strategic investments above MX$2 billion and 90-day timelines for smaller projects. The mechanism, paired with the National Digital Investment Window and simplification measures at COFEPRIS and for business openings, aims to reduce bureaucratic delays and corruption risk as Mexico competes for nearshoring capital. The office adds to an investment apparatus that includes state promotion committees and a US$406.8 billion national portfolio spanning 2,539 projects through 2030.
Twenty-two investment projects exceeding US$8 billion have cleared Mexico’s Presidential Office for Investment Promotion roughly one month after the agency began operating, President Claudia Sheinbaum reported, presenting the fast-track body as an instrument against corruption in public administration.
Sheinbaum said the main objective of the new office is to eliminate discretionality in government processes through digital procedures and better response times. “The objective is to eliminate the corruption that may occur in any space, for everything to be digital and for procedures to be resolved very quickly so that they can begin their investment,” the president said.
The agency traces back to a May 4 decree, one of the instruments rolled out under Plan México to give projects deemed strategic for national development a dedicated approval lane. Behind its creation lies a problem officials have repeatedly named: companies weighing Mexico as a destination during the global reshuffling of supply chains can see multibillion-dollar commitments stall, or vanish, while paperwork crawls through three levels of government.
Ximena Escobedo, Undersecretary of Industry and Commerce at the Ministry of Economy, said the approvals already granted translate into shorter timelines and lower costs for companies, fewer bureaucratic steps and firmer ground for executing investments in the country.
How the Mechanism Works
Decisions run through an interagency committee. Seven bodies sit on it: the ministries of Economy, Finance, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, and Anticorruption and Good Government, plus the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency and the Advisory Council for Regional Economic Development and Relocation. The committee commits to resolving strategic projects within 30 days at most, a fraction of what permitting has historically taken.
Eligibility is tiered for now. The initial phase covers investments above MX$2 billion, with priority for strategic sectors and for projects sited in the Development Poles for Wellbeing; medium-sized companies are slated to gain access later. Per MBN, proposals below those thresholds still pass through the office but on a 90-day clock, while fast-track cases in fields such as electronics, technology and automotive manufacturing clear in under 30 days.
A digital layer accompanies the institutional one. The National Digital Investment Window will gather investment-related procedures on a single platform, deliberately limiting face-to-face dealings between businesses and officials. The administration’s wager: fewer discretionary touchpoints and fixed deadlines leave less room for corruption to take root.
Simplification Beyond Large Investments
Smaller firms get their own track. A new National Platform of Commercial Establishments trims business-opening requirements from 63 to 10, letting micro and small enterprises start operating almost on the spot. Health regulator COFEPRIS, meanwhile, says it has compressed its catalog of procedures from 340 to 125, cut requirements in half from 14 to seven, and brought average resolution times down from 100 days to 24.
Taken together, the government presents these moves as one playbook, digitalize, simplify, and in doing so squeeze out corruption, cheapen compliance and get capital deployed faster while Mexico vies for the investment flowing from corporate relocation to North America.
A Growing Investment Apparatus
The office does not stand alone. It plugs into a wider architecture the administration has assembled over the past year. The national project portfolio has expanded to US$406.8 billion across 2,539 initiatives, with 1.63 million jobs projected for 2026-2030, up from 2,241 projects and 1.46 million jobs in the prior count, MBN reported. “This growth reflects the direct work of the state committees and more than 1,000 participants supporting this process,” Minister of Economy Marcelo Ebrard said. He added: “Mexico is currently the United States’ top trading partner and, according to US official data, the partner facing the lowest tariff burden.”
Those state-level Investment Promotion Committees, now being installed across the country in coordination with federal agencies, share a target of shaving at least one-third off project timelines, per MBN. Above them sits the National Investment Council, a public-private forum operating since early December 2025, which aims to push investment past 25% of GDP from 2026 and beyond 28% by 2030. On the private side, businesses have lined up 38 infrastructure proposals for 2026, a package that “could exceed” US$40 billion, MBN reported.
The policy logic comes from Plan México itself. Altagracia Gómez, Coordinator, Business Advisory Council, has described its foundations as active industrial policy, advanced manufacturing, climbing the value-added ladder, and selectively substituting imports from countries outside Mexico’s trade agreements, according to MBN.
The 22 approvals are the decree’s first tangible result. The real test arrives with scale: if the 30-day promise survives a thicker pipeline, the office could become a permanent gateway for the nearshoring capital Mexico wants to lock in.
