Mazatlan will host the first tourism project developed in Mexico under the modality of Public Private Partnership (APP)

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The new aquarium, estimated to be inaugurated at the end of 2020, is the first work of the sector in this modality.

The new Mazatlan aquarium, Sinaloa, which is expected to be inaugurated at the end of 2020, is the first tourism project developed in Mexico under the modality of Public-Private Partnership (APP) and its administrative process began during the last six years of the hand of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur).

The estimated cost of the work is 1,524.4 million pesos, of which 40% will be contributed by the Federal Ministry of Tourism and the National Infrastructure Fund.

The rest of the resources will be from the consortium made up of Abequ, the Ocean Wise Conservation Association, Makro Construction and Audax Operator, who were awarded the bid by the Sinaloa government to design, build, operate and maintain the aquarium for 30 years (in process were the only ones that delivered technical and economic proposals).

The contract was signed on October 31, 2018 and, according to the Budget of Expenditures of the 2019 Federation, the companies will invest 700.5 million pesos this year.

Last Friday, the Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco, accompanied the governor of Sinaloa, Quirino Ordaz, in the ceremony of placing the first stone of the new facilities that will replace the current aquarium that has 40 years of existence.

There, Torruco Marqués said that the project “is in tune with the policy undertaken by the president of the Republic Andrés Manuel López Obrador, consisting of creating anchor tourist attractions in each of the states to increase tourism,” according to a press release .

In February 2018, the then director of Fonatur, Miguel Alonso Reyes, assured El Economista that they gave “all their support” to this project because it would generate a good image of the destination, nationally and internationally, although it would not be he who coordinated it. , but the state authority.

“Mazatlan has been deteriorated in recent years because of organized crime and the dissemination of red notes in the mass media, so it is necessary to improve and promote the various tourist attractions,” he said.

It can be an example: Imexdi

In an interview, the director of the Mexican Institute of Infrastructure Development (Imexdi), Edmundo Gamas, considered that the Mazatlan aquarium could become a “watershed” in the sector, because the Public Private Partnerships Act dating from 2012 has been used. and that has not been given the importance it has, despite having areas for improvement.

“It is a project that has fulfilled the requirements of the Law of Public Private Partnerships and is already underway. It will be important to give a precise follow-up of its development, which should be in total transparency and can set the standard for its use in the states to create infrastructure, before the current federal austerity policy, “he said.

As stated in the law, the government of Sinaloa submitted an unsolicited proposal to build its new aquarium in Mazatlan, which was endorsed by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit after meeting the various requirements, which allowed it to be part of the project. the list of attractions to invest that is promoted in the Proyectos México platform, under the tutelage of the National Bank of Public Works and Services.

Among the documents prepared by the government of Sinaloa is that of eligibility, which in its conclusions section of the public version states: “The results obtained in this report allow us to conclude that the new Mazatlán aquarium is feasible as a project with all the profile and the potential to be developed through a strategic alliance between the public sector and the participation of the private initiative for the financing, construction, implementation, start-up, operation, conservation and long-term maintenance of this strategic project through a scheme of APP. “

Source: El Economista

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