MEXICO CITY Mexico will in 15 days launch a public tender for the construction of 10 industrial parks at a planned business corridor on an isthmus in the south of the country, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday.

Auto makers, tech companies and semiconductor producers could be among investors in the parks, Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said this month, noting officials were pitching the project to companies from the U.S., Canada, Taiwan and Germany.

Lopez Obrador said last week the government is willing to provide subsidies and grant tax cuts to companies that set up operations in the so-called Inter-Oceanic Corridor.

The project is taking shape along the stretch connecting the Pacific port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state with the Gulf coast hub of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state. It ultimately aims to compete with the Panama Canal as a channel to move goods.

(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Dave Graham)