Last week, in preparation for my technology cluster presentation to the 2007 Foro Internacional Clusters in Hermosillo, Mexico, I came to a startling comparison between the national economy of Old Mexico and the state economy of New Mexico. Bearing with me, let's conduct some armchair economics.

In round numbers, the gross national product of Mexico is $500 billion per year with a population close to 100 million people. The GNP is 50 times the country's population. The GNP is a number that sums up the total output of an economy.

The gross state product for New Mexico is $60 billion and our population is approaching 2 million. New Mexico's GSP is 300 times our population. Equivalently, New Mexico's GSP would be one-sixth of its current size if our economic output was the same as Mexico's, or 83 percent smaller if my arithmetic is correct. Another relative way of looking at the statistics would be to reduce your pay scale by that amount.

My point is not to speak of Mexico ungraciously, rather to simply illustrate some economic numbers in ways to understand the comparative economies. Mexico's economy is actually doing better than many other nations. Keep in mind that this exercise is grossly oversimplified.

The Hermosillo forum was organized by the U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference economic development initiative. I represented the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers' International Business Accelerator, New Mexico Information Technology and Software Association, and the New Mexico Economic Development Department at the event.

My role at the conference was to share insights about New Mexico's business and industry development and to learn about opportunities for partnering with Mexican businesses.

This is my third such conference at which I have been invited to speak. Each time, I come away amazed at the Mexican ambassadorial business ambitions. They are cultivating a wide and rich global business network that is sprinkled unconsciously throughout their discussions.

Comparatively, the Mexicans are much more aggressive in this way, in my experience, than you would sense from a similar group of American businesses. American businesses are typically more insular to national business because they can be, to their certain weakness.

I met with very earnest people from industry, government and academia at the conference who are committed to improving the Mexican state technology and manufacturing industries. Their enthusiasm and passion raises the global hope index and is humbling to behold. From the shuttle van ride onward, we had lively translated conversations about these obstacles and opportunities. I come away impressed and optimistic for Mexico's progress, again.

In the small world category, Cliff Schertz, a successful software entrepreneur from Arizona and one of the speakers on the same panel I was on, shared with me that he lived in Albuquerque for 15 years working for Sandia National Laboratories before taking his entrepreneurial turn. Schertz has established an operation in Mexico for his company, Camisa Technologies, and hopes to employ 500 programmers in Hermosillo in a few years, in addition to his home office staff in Tempe. I invited him "home" to Albuquerque, and he is interested in exploring the opportunities.

Schertz's story is reflective of New Mexico's own economic challenges relative to the U.S. economy and other cities across the country. We export our people, ideas and companies from New Mexico much too frequently - a topic for another column soon.

Getting a cappuccino from the lobby coffee stand in my hotel, I noticed that the young woman making my drink, Xochitl Nereyda Martinez Gonzalez, was busy studying for a university accounting class when not serving coffee. She is Mexico's bright future. Her name, which means "flowering goddess" in her native Aztecan Nahuatl language, is apropos for the future of Mexico.

The world is flat - to borrow Tom Friedman's often cited book title. Looking out from Hermosillo, opportunities prevail if you look ahead far enough.