Before, the boards were shipped in from Taiwan. I always saw this as being a career with a real future,'' she says. More than 7,000 employees of IBM and its subcontractors work at the plant. The parts used to be made in Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Now, IBM's Guadalajara plant produces and ships them by air each day to a plant in San Jose, Calif., where hard drives are assembled for IBM's laptops, desktops, and servers worldwide.
Textiles are another Mexican industry bringing factories and jobs back from Asia.
DuPont and Mexican partner Alpek are building a polyester plant nearby. Far from being crushed by the invasion of foreign investors, many Mexican textile makers are staying competitive by investing in technology. The change is visible in Puebla, Mexico's traditional textile center. More than 140 plants, mostly garment makers, have located in Yucatan and Oaxaca states, which previously had little industry. But for many small Mexican companies, high borrowing costs are a barrier to upgrading technology.