In this country, the activities to support micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises have increased significantly since the implementation, beginning in 1988, of the Integral Quality and Modernisation Programme (CIMO), originally called Industrial Training of the Labour Force, and promoted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. In response to training, information, consulting services and technical assistance needs of these firms, CIMO has promoted a scheme to link integrated services that enables them to upgrade the quality, productivity, market know-how and modernity of management and labour relations.

The action of CIMO is carried out through a structure of Training Promotion Units (UPC), distributed in strategic locations throughout Mexico, within intermediate enterpreneurial organisations, in order to take advantage of their mustering capacity to constitute groups of firms by branches, groups of suppliers, subjects or problems in common.

Among other examples of CIMO achievements along these lines, the following may be mentioned:

• The Tlaxcala Quality and Productivity Centre, constituted by twelve manufacturing companies and their respective association, conceived as a CIMO guidelines implementing agency. The mission of this Centre is to become an instrument of support and stimulus for the constant upgrading of the competitiveness of firms, businesses and producer organisations in the region. It is achieved through overall support programmes adapted to the needs of each firm, catering to it directly or linking it up with the providers of services needed.

• The Puebla Competitiveness Development Centre (CEDECOM) is the result of joint work carried out by CIMO and the National Chamber of Manufacturing Industries (CANACINTRA). It arose from the CIMO Training Promotion Unit (UPC) that undertook, in Puebla, systematic and sustained work in the framework of training, quality and productivity programmes with micro-, small and medium-sized firms of the most representative sectors and branches of the region. Regarding these advances, CEDECOM is considred to be a new stage of development and consolidation.

As can be seen in the examples above, this is a pioneer activity. Although CIMO was originally a Government initiative, its approach is participational, decentralised and flexible, enabling joint action with employers’ associations and the firms benefiting from it. Moreover, the UPC’s are not local representations of a central agency, but rather local fora that promote a methodology of work seeking to be appropriate for the firms themselves and their organisations.