On June 15, 2022, a Binational Collaboration Agreement San Diego – Tijuana was signed between various economic promotion agencies on both sides of the border, in order to establish a single agenda of joint work to empower the Mega Region and consolidate it as a pole of investment.
The Cali Baja region (a fusion of the names of the states of California, the United States and Baja California, Mexico) is composed of the counties of San Diego and Valle Imperial, and the municipalities of Baja California; y representa la zona económica integrada más grande en la frontera norte de México.
According to the 2022 report, The Cali Baja Regional Economy (“The Cali Baja Regional Economy”), by the University of San Diego, Cali Baja has a regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $250 billion and cross-border trade flows estimated at $70 billion. In the same, it was indicated that in 2018, it located 33,027 highly competitive companies that employed 657,598 people in 70 different industries that, combined, contributed $38.6 billion dollars to the total value added of the regional economy.
The main industries are manufacturing, in particular audiovisual equipment, medical devices, furniture production, tools, semiconductors and other electronic components, musical instruments and the aerospace industry.
Cali Baja also has advantages in the agricultural, tourism, and international business sectors in general, as it has important ports for trade with Asia and other parts of the world.
Despite years of binational relations, no such agreement had ever been signed. On the US side, the San Diego Tourism Authority, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Smart Border Coalition, and the Southern County Economic Development Council (SCEDC) participated; and on the Mexican side: The Committee on Tourism and Conventions (Cotuco), the Business Coordinating Council, the Development Council of Tijuana, and the Working Group on Economic and Industrial Development of Tijuana (Deitac); in addition to their respective government authorities.
It is intended that these agencies will meet every two months to work on strategies that generate and promote economic and business opportunities on both sides of the border, especially looking at the emerging industries in the region, such as Health Sciences and Biotechnology, Mobility, Electronics and Information Technologies.
Likewise, priority is given to positioning the binational region as the main destination for foreign investment and as a platform for innovation, through effective communication and collective events between agencies, added to the joint action to generate public policies that favor the competitiveness of the entities.
Recently, the Secretary of Economy and Innovation of Baja California, Kurt Honold Morales, reported that the state maintains a growing flow of Foreign Direct Investment, and that in the last 5 years, The United States stands out as the country that has contributed the most with 75.3% of the total; Other sources of investment have been Spain (9.1%), Korea (6.4%), Japan (3.1%) and Canada (1.5%).
For the first quarter of this year, Baja California ranked as the fifth state with the highest FDI collection, with an amount of 839.6 million dollars, comprising 4.3% of the national total. Regarding the same quarter of 2021, an increase of 78.6% is observed.
FDI came mostly from the United States (73.9%), Spain (10.3%), Korea (2%), Canada (1.9%), France (1.7%) and Ireland (1.3%).
And it was mainly destined to the branches of natural gas transport by pipelines (26.1%), multiple banking (7.4%), and generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy (5.5%).
We may also recall that, earlier this month, the Tijuana Tourism and Convention Committee (Cotuco) signed a letter of understanding with the San Diego County and Imperial Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SDCIVHCC), to coordinate efforts and thus boost tourism and trade.
Binational
This document does not constitute a particular consultation, and therefore, Asesores Stratego SC, is not responsible for the interpretation
or application given to it. The total or partial reproduction of this publication, by any means or procedure, is prohibited without the prior, express and written authorization of the author. Any form of unauthorized use will be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Copyright Law. We are at your service to answer your questions or comments, for more information on this subject and our services, please contact us at: info@asesores-stratego.com