Several companies shut down their doors due to the pandemic worldwide. In Baja California the impact was close to a billion dollars.

La Voz newspaper reported that $954.6 million investments fled from Baja California in the last two years.

Baja California Economic Studies Center President Roberto Valero said Japanese companies left the state with $304.6 million, followed by Spanish companies with $66.8 million and German ones with $4.1 million.

The reports based in the Department of Economy studies only refer to the amount of investments leaving Baja California.

In contrast, last year the state reported $1.1 billion in private foreign investment.

However, Valero said, for example, Ienova announced a significant investment years ago that was finalized in 2021.

According to Valero, in the last quarter of 2020 private foreign investment reached $86.4 million — a figure that was reduced to $56.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Private foreign investment was $171.7 million in the last three months of 2019.

The cause of the decline was the anti-business climate generated by now former Governor Jaime Bonilla and the lack of investment in investigation and development centers in Baja California, Valero said.

Also, companies seeking to open in more business-friendly states were also a factor. Valero said 90 percent of Japanese companies that left Baja California moved to states like Aguascalientes and Guanajuato that have automobile and aerospace investigation centers.