BUSINESS SECTION

Banks begin to profile candidates

The world's biggest financial companies have talked with several presidential hopefuls.

BY Nayeli Cortes Cano/El Universal
August 24, 2005

The world's biggest financial firms have contacted a number of presidential hopefuls to get a better grasp of how the country might be run after President Vicente Fox steps down in 2006, according to campaign officials who spoke with EL UNIVERSAL.

Representatives from the campaigns of Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN) all confirmed that international financial companies have contacted them to learn about their economic proposals.

Other politicians gunning for their parties' candidacies, such as the PAN's Santiago Creel and Alberto Cárdenas and the PRI's Arturo Montiel, have yet to hear from the banking groups.

Ernesto Cordero, an advisor for Calderón, said that the candidate has been in contact with JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Credit Suize and First Boston, among others, while López Obrador and Madrazo declined to give the names of the firms they have met with.

Calderón's main economic proposals are to develop Mexico's internal market, push through stalled labor reforms, create an auditing body that would investigate staterun companies such as Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), combat tax evasion and stimulate infrastructure projects.

PRD lawmaker Manuel Camacho Solís, who is also one of López Obrador's chief political advisers, said the candidate had spoken with "50 percent of the financial firms operating in the country." He added the companies became suddenly eager to meet with López Obrador shortly after Fox moved to derail federal charges that could have disqualified him from running for the presidency.

If elected, López Obrador says he would improve social justice and the distribution of wealth, maintain macroeconomic stability and keep the nation's Central Bank as an autonomous institution.

Madrazo's adviser Samuel Aguilar said the candidate had assured financial institutions the PRI would remain united despite internal pressures.

Madrazo proposes to improve infrastructure to help the nation fight off growing competition from Asia, reduce customs paperwork and boost tax collection.

Representatives of Montiel, who will face Madrazo for the PRI's candidacy, said he has sent his economic proposals such as maintaining stability and increasing productivity through better education to a number of national and international financial bodies.

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The Herald Mexico Edition/Universal article at:  http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia_miami.html?id_nota=11679&tabla=miami

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