Business · Economy · 4 hrs ago
UNAM rector urges Mexico to strengthen domestic production and infrastructure
UNAM rector Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas called for stronger production capacity in Mexico to help turn economic demand into lasting jobs.
He made the case at a seminar at the university’s Faculty of Economics marking 90 years since John Maynard Keynes published a major work on economics.
He said investment alone cannot create durable jobs without the infrastructure, energy, equipment and local suppliers needed to produce goods.
Lomelí compared the Second World War and Mexico’s 1995 crisis, saying the country’s existing productive capacity shaped how demand translated into jobs and growth.
Current challenges include AI, financial instability and climate change, along with inequality and changes in technology and energy.
UNAM academics said governments have a central role in supporting economic stability and employment when markets do not provide enough jobs or well-being; they called for examining investment and the state’s responsibilities when economic activity falls short.
UNAM rector Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas said Mexico needs to strengthen domestic productive capacity to turn economic demand and opportunities into lasting jobs.
He said employment and long-term growth depend not only on investment, but also on infrastructure, energy, equipment and domestic suppliers.
Lomelí made the remarks while opening a seminar on the present-day relevance of John Maynard Keynes’s work at UNAM’s Faculty of Economics.
He cited the Second World War and Mexico’s 1995 crisis as periods when external demand rose under different domestic conditions.
Faculty of Economics director Lorena Rodríguez León said current challenges include inequality, financial instability, artificial intelligence, technological and energy changes, and the climate crisis.
- Who
- UNAM rector Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, along with Faculty of Economics director Lorena Rodríguez León and postgraduate coordinator María Eugenia Romero Sotelo.
- What
- They discussed Keynes’s relevance and the need to strengthen Mexico’s productive capacity, infrastructure and employment.
- When
- The article was published on November 3, 2026; the seminar date is not stated.
- Where
- The seminar was held at UNAM’s Faculty of Economics, in the Narciso Bassols auditorium.
- Why
- To consider how economic demand can create lasting jobs and how Keynes’s ideas can help analyze current economic challenges.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
John Maynard Keynes’s work was published, according to Lomelí.
Lomelí cited the period as one when external demand rose under particular domestic conditions.
Lomelí cited Mexico’s crisis as another period when external demand rose under different domestic conditions.
El Universal published its report on the seminar and the rector’s remarks.
- UNAM rector
- Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas
- Seminar
- The General Theory, Interest and Money by John M. Keynes: Its Relevance Today
- Venue
- Narciso Bassols auditorium, UNAM Faculty of Economics
- Historical examples
- Second World War; Mexico’s 1995 crisis
- Current challenges
- Inequality, financial instability, artificial intelligence, technological and energy changes, climate crisis
What people are saying
The Mexican experience also invites us to study the concrete conditions under which that demand can become work: what is produced here, with what equipment, with what energy and with what suppliers. These conditions are inherited, but they are also built.
Its current relevance does not lie in repeating its conclusions, but in examining what it helps us understand about problems Keynes could not have known.
If we want today’s opportunities to durably expand production and employment, we must look not only at the scale of the demand that arrives, but at the capacity we leave in place to respond to the next one.