Tijuana- San Diego- cross-border economic interdependence
By Adina Moloman
Sources: The New York Times, UT San Diego
The San Diego-Tijuana region has many shared assets. San Diego is well known for the development of important economic sectors such as defense, telecommunications and biotechnology; the international trade and visitors industry.
Tijuana, has a growing industrial base and in the last couple of years has transformed into the world’s premier hub for making flat-screen televisions, and a site for aerospace and medical equipment manufacturing, two growing sectors that are strategically promoted by the Mexican government.
Even when the region boasts fine educational institutions and recreational options on both sides of the border the cross-border student exchanges have fallen in recent years and the art and cultural partnership is not that solid as it should. A good explanation for that is the poor image of Tijuana.
Tijuana arts and cultural climate is attracting attention among the arts community around the world and should be much more exploited regionally.
A good start is to raise awareness of cross-border economic interdependence.
This can be changed when actors from both sides of the border are aware of the economic benefits of their interaction.
The first in seeing the benefits of cross-border economic interdependence are the entrepreneurs. The city of San Diego is one of the most diversified high-tech economies in the U.S. and in the last three years San Diego’s entrepreneurs looked for direct business partners in Tijuana.
Basically this happens for a few reasons: Mexico has shifted into a new manufacturing model that gives to the transnational corporations established under the Mexico Maquiladora Program a maximum flexibility and market access, with competitive prices and skilled labor, which brings high returns with shorter supply chains.
Another reason is the salaries in China that are rising fast.
Due to these reasons a large number of U.S. and Canadian businesses – large and small –decided to bring some of its business back to North America, specifically to Mexico.
Both San Diego and Tijuana are working together to collectively respond to regional issues such as border delays and are working on infrastructure projects: a national desalination plant, investments in renewable sources of energy, and a cross-border airport terminal and the Otay East port of entry.
