China and Mexico plan infrastructure and energy investment fund

Enrique Pena Nieto said the two countries are also considering a potential oil deal worth up to $5bn, involving exploration and production projects in Mexico, although details were not released, Reuters reported.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said renewed cooperation between the countries would extend to other sectors including finance and hi-tech industries.

However, Xinhua said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also “expressed his regret” over Mexico’s recent cancellation of a high-speed rail deal, by a China-Mexico joint consortium, to build a 210-kilometre high-speed railway connecting Mexico City with the industrial hub of Queretaro to the north.

According to Xinhua, Li asked the Mexican government to "fairly" treat Chinese enterprises investing in the country and said the consortium “had strictly followed the public bidding procedures” required by Mexico. Infrastructure building is a “priority of China-Mexico cooperation”, Li said.

Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transport said on 6 November that the deal was being cancelled owing to “concerns about the bidding process”. However, Xinhua said Pena Nieto “still welcomes Chinese firms participating in high-speed rail projects”.

According to official figures published last September, China's outbound direct investment reached a record high of $108bn in 2013, “making it the world's third largest investor for the second year”.

A report released by professional services firm PwC (24-page / 5.68 MB PDF) said the recovery of the global infrastructure market will grow between 6-7% annually up to 2025, but will be “geographically uneven and led overwhelmingly” by Asia.

The report said the Asia-Pacific market will represent nearly 60% of all global infrastructure spending within the next 11 years, “driven mainly by China’s growth”.