MEXICO CITY, July 6 (Reuters) - Mexico aims to attract more private companies to the country's poor southeast with a $200 million financing package, backed by an international development bank, a top finance ministry official said Wednesday.
Economic growth and development have been uneven in Mexico, with the region encompassing parts of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco and Veracruz historically lagging.
The financing will be provided via a credit line from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and prioritize investment in Tehuantepec Isthmus, Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio said at an event Wednesday alongside IDB and government officials.
"One of the great projects of the current administration is the construction of an industrial enclave and the economic linkage of the southeast region to the country's productive system," Yorio said.
Separately, the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is building a controversial refinery, a tourist train and a logistical corridor that includes the rehabilitation of a railway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
His predecessors also made efforts to boost economic development in the area: in 2016, then-President Enrique Pena Nieto created special economic zones that offered tax breaks. (Reporting by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by David Gregorio)
