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Contributed Papers Session
"Municipio" =/= "Municipal":
Lessons Learned on Finding City Information for Starting a Small Business in Mexico
by
March 7, 1998
Presentation || Handout 1 || Handout 2 || Bibliography
During FORO V in Mexico City I had discussions with Salvador Sanchez, Director of ITESM
CEM Biblioteca about visiting his library for research into city level information needed by
business people considering starting or relocating a business in Mexico. Although I had copies of
the extremely helpful bibliography "A Selection of Mexican Business Reference Sources" by Jesus
Lau, which was presented both at the Foro and at the Special Libraries Association annual
meeting in 1994, I really felt the need to see some of these works and look for more. My
background is as a business librarian with an emphasis on economics and marketing. I publish a
bibliography on Cities (http://www.asu.edu/lib/hayden/ref/busi/cities.html) and one on Marketing Resources (http://www.asu.edu/lib/hayden/ref/busi/mktres.html) available at the ASU Libraries. I also
have demand for this information because the Arizona State University, College of Business,
Economic Outlook Center publishes Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast/México Consenso de
Prognóstico Económicos. Arizona is also very active in developing and strengthening transborder
business with Sonora.
When I returned from the FORO V conference, I quickly wrote an ASU Libraries Research Grant
to spend two weeks studying city level information available in Mexico. Ideally, I was going to
revise my Cities bibliography to include Mexico information sources and do the work in both
Spanish & English. I received the grant & with Salvador's help was able to arrange a home stay
and visits to several other Libraries in Mexico City.
My first task was to understand the levels of government and what offices issued items like
business licenses and zoning and building permits. I was also concerned with items like retail and
office space available, demographics (housing, education, professions, income, households),
employment & unemployment, quality of life, available resources, suppliers, transportation, etc. In
short, I wanted all the typical information I need to start a business in the United States.
I first combed through the Reference Collection at ITESM CEM to find that they had more
wealth of information than even they realized. They had a very good collection of Federal Census
materials and the monthly and quarterly economic bulletins from INEGI and the various State
governments. They also had quite a few commercial publications that would answer questions
not covered by INEGI or other governmental agencies.
I asked endless questions which were patiently answered. Just as in the US, the answer usually
started with, "It depends..."
The most difficult thing to understand is that there is not a direct correlation of terms and levels of
government between our two countries. Yes we both have the national level, which we each call
our Federal Government and we both have state governments. Both of these levels of government
in both countries have retained the majority of control over business and commerce. Below that,
we have slightly different ways of doing things based on the history of our countries.
First, we both treat our national capitol as a unique entity. We treat Washington DC differently
than any other city but since it was created AFTER we became a country, we set it up as a
city/district that reports to the Federal Government but has a common U.S. city style
administration. Mexico, Distrito Federal, however, was the capitol of Mexico under colonial rule
and it had its own governance set up following Spanish style delegations. That form was retained
when Mexico became independent.
Second, the government and political divisions below the state level are different in the extent of
their legislative powers. Municipios does translate into the word municipal, but it does not meet
the same definitions as the US use of the word "municipal", by which we mean the individual
government councils that run villages, townships, towns, and cities in most states. The more I
questioned and listened to answers, the more I became convinced that a Municipio is really much
more equivalent to a County in the US. Municipios, like Counties, have more than one city,
town, village, etc within their borders. One town is designated as the Cabecera Municipal, which
we would call the County Seat in a County. Just as in the United States, I would expect to visit
the Cabecera Municipal and the state capitol to find out the licenses, fees, and permits needed to
operate within the municipio and the particular state. The Municipio's power to provide public
services, legislate, and to levy taxes is very limited by the state and national constitutions in
Mexico. Also, most states have a state municipal code that applies to all Municipios within the
state. Any local regulations must conform to this code. In the US, there is not that same
uniformity from town to town or even county to county.
In the US I have another step if I wish to locate within the boundaries of a city or town. I must
also check for licenses, fees, and permit requirements of that local government. US cities and
towns have the power to require permits, licenses, set construction and zoning codes, and levy
local taxes. This is not true in Mexico. Localidades (cities, towns, villages, etc.) are not given
these legislative powers by the national or state constitutions. This does NOT mean you don't
need local approval. Even in the small town in Minnesota where I grew up, you were expected
to get informal approval or consensus before going ahead with projects. Local customs are very
important to the success of a business.
Ejidos are a special case. These are types of communal farms that operate under a Municipio but
have additional special national agrarian laws that apply to the types of business and development
that can be done within the ejidos. Ejidos may be operated collectively through a union or
sindicato. Agrarian reform is an ongoing process that requires constant attention for anyone
wishing to be involved in agribusiness in Mexico.
Until recently, it was difficult to find market information on small areas in Mexico without doing
your own survey or hiring it done. With the signing of NAFTA, I have seen more information
made available. It is still much easier to find published information on metropolitan areas than on
small towns. That is also true in the US.
What can be done when there doesn't seem to be much published? Most states and the Federal
Government in Mexico have tourism bureaus (Fomento del Turismo) and economic development
offices (Desarrollo Económico). The US Trade Center in Mexico City had a nice collection of
brochures in Spanish and English promoting business development in Municipios. These actually
were quite useful for narrowing possible locations for a business based on the economic
development plan and other information provided.
Using the World Wide Web has been a mixed blessing. The difficulty is finding official
government web pages, travel and tourism pages, Chamber of Commerce pages and easily telling
the difference. The URL may not be a helpful .gov, .ci, or .gob since many governments contract
out the work to network providers. This is especially true of smaller governments. The official
web pages of states, Municipios/Counties, and cities are very good and helpful, if updated
regularly. These are often designed to answer many of the frequently asked questions about the
city, Municipio/County, and state. Unofficial pages, pages most often done by local real estate
firms, travel agencies, and Chambers of Commerce, are better at providing more quality of life
information. Please remember, all of these types of web pages are still publicity -- promotional
material to get you to visit or relocate to the area.
Computers have made research easier and more difficult at the same time. The computer is
oblivious to the differences between Maricopa, the county, and Maricopa, the town, both of
which are in Arizona. In Mexico, the problem is compounded when a city is in a Municipio and a
state with the same name like Durango AND including word like 'city', 'county', 'municipio', or
'state' in the search statement doesn't always help. My research was helped significantly when I
could use the geographic place name and a standardized subheading like 'ciudad' in the library
catalogs. The World Wide Web is not so organized for searching, but can be done by going to
major providers like Yahoo and Lycos and using the geographic hierarchy of the web pages.
There is no easy way to sort out city or county names that occur in more than one state either
since the state name is not always indexed or included in the document.
Where else can I find information? Each industry tends to have its own trade association or union
(asociación or sindicado) that often publishes directories of members and other useful documents.
(The useful associations for marketing information in Mexico are listed in the International
Advertising & Marketing Information Sources published by the Special Libraries Association in
1995.) There is no particular consistency in publication or availability of member directories for
the industry groups just as we find in the US among the state and local chapters of our business
associations.
How can I be sure I have all the information there is on my industry? You can't. For many
industries in the US, we have to make personal contacts and conduct interviews to get
unpublished information. The smaller the industry or niche, the harder it is to find published
information. Contacting the right government office for permits, licenses, etc. is often just as
difficult in the US as it is in Mexico. Outsiders to the community have no idea of the bureaucratic
quirks that have developed in the local government offices and it is a frustrating experience to get
to the right office.
The outcome I hope for with city and Municipio level research into the local market is that
enough information is found throughout the research process of planning to start a business that
business people can make sound decisions leading to successful businesses.
National (Federal) Government (US Federal Government -- Both Federal Governments
determine permitted businesses allowed to "foreigners". Some licenses, fees, and permits are
issued at this level.)
| Cemeteries | Police | Slaughterhouses |
| Cleaning | Public Lighting | Traffic Police |
| Markets | Roads | Urban Transportation |
| Parks | Sewage System | Water Supply |
| Development Control | Environmental Protection | Land use planning |
Metropolitan Area government cooperation is virtually non-existent in Mexico at this time. It is
not needed in many areas since Municipios are often large enough geographically to encompass
most metropolitan areas. There appears to be a growing need for cooperation in some
governance areas like pollution control, for major metropolitan areas that encompass multiple
Municipios in one or more states, like the Mexico City Metropolitan Area which encompasses 16
Delegaciones + 17 - 27 Municipios del Estado de Mexico. The US metropolitan area government
cooperation is well developed in some areas and fairly non-existent in others.
Selected Resources
for
Mexico's Municipio and City Level Information
I was able to examine each of the documents included in the list. I have made annotations
whenever it was not clear from the title what types of information would be included.
Government Agency Publications
CEDEMUN (Centro nacional de Desarrollo Municpal) publications:
CIEN (Centro de Información y Estudios Nacionales) publications:
FONEP publications:
INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas, Geografía, y Informàtica
(http://www.inegi.gob.mx/) publications:
Nacional Finaciera (http://www.nafinsa.gob.mx)
SECOFI (Secretaria de Comercio y Fomento Industrial)
(http://www.secofi-siem.gob.mx/intranet.asp)
SNIM (Servicio Nacional de Información de Mercado) publications:
Non Governmental & Paragovernmental Organizations
American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico publications:
ANIERM (Asociación Nacional de Importadores y Exportadores de la República
Mexicana) publications:
BANAMEX (Banco Nacional de México) (http://www.banamex.com/eng/index.htm)
Banco de México (http://www.banxico.org.mx/public_html/indices/indexe.html) publications:
Bancomer (http://www.bancomer.com.mx/index.html) publications:
BIMSA Comunicaciones publications:
IBCON publications:
INFOSEL México (http://www.infosel.com.mx/)
IMER (Instituto Mexicano de la Radio) (http://www.telecomex.com/imer) publication:
INCO (Instituto Nacional del Consumidor) publications:
Limusa
Medios Publicitarios Mexicanos publications:
Mercamétrica Ediciones publications:
Vicepresidencia de Transmisión y Conducción de Señales; Gerencia de Información de
Cadenas,
WILSA (Wilbert Sierra y Asociados) publications:
Mexico Web Sites:
General with many Hot Links:
Cities/Municipios:
States:
Federal Government:
Paraestatal (Public) Agencies (http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/welcome/gov_para.htm)
Books on Mexican Government:
Markiewicz, Dana. Ejido Organization in Mexico, 1934-1976. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin
American Center Publications, 1980.
Salazar Medina, Julian. Elementos Básicos de la Administración Municipal. Toluca, Estado de
México, MX : Universidad Autonoma del Estado de México, 1987.
Rounds, Christopher. From Hacienda to Ejido: Land Reform and Economic Development in
Yautepec, Morelos, 1920-1970. New York: Garland, 1987.
Alisky, Marvin. Government of the Mexican State of Nuevo Leon. Tempe, AZ : Arizona State
University Center for Latin American Studies, 1971.
Nickson, R. Andrew. Local Government in Latin America. Boulder, CO : Lynne Reinner, 1995.
Pp 199-209,300-301.
El Municipio en México. Zamora, Michoacán, MX : El Colegio de Michoacán, 1987.
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