Meeting Notice and Agenda
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Our two countries are engaging in a new level of bilateral dialogue, in which our California– Baja California region plays an active role to enhance quality of life and binational competitiveness. Tuesday, June 2, 2015 12:00 – 4:30 p.m. Caltrans District 11 – García Conference Room 4050 Taylor Street, San Diego, CA 92110 1. REGISTRATION AND NETWORKING TIME 12:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served. (30 min.) 2. HIGHLIGHTING ACCOMPLISHMENTS ON THE BORDER REGION 12:30 p.m. (Gary L. Gallegos, SANDAG) (15 min.) 3. STARTING THE BORDER DIALOGUE 12:45 p.m. (Hon. Councilmember David Alvarez, City of San Diego) Borders Committee Member, Hon. Councilmember David Alvarez will start the border dialogue (45 min.) by sharing the importance of binational collaboration throughout our region, and introduce the members of Committee on Binational Regional Opportunities. Members will share their experiences, as well as challenges and opportunities for an active and efficient border dialogue. Denice García, Director of Binational Relations of the City of San Diego Paola Ávila, Vice President of International Policy of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Tito Alegría, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte Jason Wells, San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce 4. GO GLOBAL SAN DIEGO INITIATIVE (Sean Barr, San Diego Regional Economic 1:30 p.m. Development Corporation; and Melissa Floca, Center for U.S.- Mexican Studies, (20 min.) UC San Diego) *BREAK* (10 min.) 5. SETTING THE STAGE FOR A BORDER DIALOGUE (Hon. John Minto, Councilmember 2:00 p.m. City of Santee and Chair of SANDAG Borders Committee; and Dr. Paul Ganster, (20 min.) Director of the Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias at San Diego State University and Chair of SANDAG Committee on Binational Regional Opportunities) 6. REFUELING THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO BILATERAL AGENDA: THE HIGH 2:20 p.m. LEVEL ECONOMIC DIALOGUE (Michael Camuñez and Lydia Antonio) (50 min.) Michael C. Camuñez is currently the President and CEO of ManattJones Global Strategies. From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Camuñez served as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance, when he played a critical role in rebalancing United States economic policy toward Mexico, leading numerous trade and policy missions to Mexico and helping to lead efforts to update and modernize a range of initiatives to enhance cross-border trade and investment. He was the chief architect of the recently established U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED), which he proposed, coordinated and later helped launch during President Obama's visit to Mexico in May 2013. Lydia Antonio is Deputy Director General for Economic Affairs, New Agenda and Image for North America in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico (SRE in Spanish). In her current position, Mrs. Antonio contributes to the development and execution of Mexico’s foreign policy programs in Northern America, U.S.-Mexico bilateral cooperation efforts, and serves as SRE’s institutional liaison with other federal agencies for activities resulting of existing or future cooperation mechanisms between Mexico, the United States of America, and Canada, as is the HLED. Prior to this position, Mrs. Antonio held different responsibilities in the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C., and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego. Mrs. Antonio is a career diplomat. 7. PANEL REFLECTIONS, ROUNDTABLE, AND OPEN DISCUSSION: CONNECTING THE 3:10 p.m. HIGH LEVEL ECONOMIC DIALOGUE AND OUR BORDER REGION (60 min.) Laurie Berman, Director, Caltrans District 11 Mark Baza, Executive Director, Imperial County Transportation Commission Remedios Gómez Arnau, Consul General of Mexico in San Diego Humberto Inzunza, President, Consejo de Desarrollo Económico de Tijuana 8. SEMINAR CONCLUSIONS (Denise Ducheny, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at 4:10 p.m. UC San Diego) (20 min.) 9. END OF SEMINAR 4:30 p.m. 2 Our two countries are engaging in a new level of bilateral dialogue, in which our California– Baja California region plays an active role to enhance quality of life and binational competitiveness. Tuesday, June 2, 2015 Introduction For the past 18 years, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has organized a binational event annually to promote crossborder collaboration on a variety of shared issues between the California- Baja California region. The binational seminar is supported by a joint partnership between SANDAG – through its Committee of Binational Regional Opportunities (COBRO) – and other stakeholders in the California-Baja California binational region. COBRO members engage in a variety of activities at both local and United States-Mexico bilateral levels to achieve regional goals of increased collaboration, information sharing, infrastructure improvements, trade, shared manufacturing, and recreation, among others. The overall purpose of the annual binational events has been to bring together stakeholders from both sides of the border to address critical regional issues and identify future opportunities and potential solutions. Each year, the theme of the annual binational seminar changes with the region’s most current and relevant topics in the binational community. Topics of past seminars also have played a role in shaping future seminar themes by building and expanding on previous experiences and lessons learned from these events. Below is a list of themes from the most recent seminars. 2009 - Challenges and Opportunities for Crossborder Climate Change Collaboration 2010 - Crossborder Climate Change Strategies: Raising Awareness of Adaptation 2011 - Enhancing Transit and Non-Motorized Mobility on the Border 2012 - The Mechanics of Crossborder Collaboration 2013 - Moving the Border Forward: Competitiveness and Sustainability 2014 - Efficient Border: A Globally Competitive Region The 2015 Binational Seminar will focus on both current and past binational collaboration efforts across the international border. Past experiences have set the foundation to engage our region in new and productive bilateral discussions, especially within the context of the recent joint federal binational initiative of the High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED).1 The HLED was established in 2013 by Presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto to strengthen bilateral ties through a more competitive and strategic partnership between the United States and Mexico. The overall goals of HLED are to achieve and expand opportunities for consumers, employees, entrepreneurs, and business-owners on both sides of the border. Together, the 1 The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. FACT SHEET: U.S.–Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue. Last modified January 6, 2015. www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/06/fact-sheet-us-mexico-high-level-economic-dialogue United States and Mexican governments are committed to working on three pillars: Promoting Competitiveness and Connectivity; Fostering Economic Growth, Productivity, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation; and Partnering for Regional and Global Leadership. Within the three pillars, a sub-set of endeavors have been established between the two governments to foster economic growth and accomplish these goals:2 • Improve logistic corridors • Jointly promote investment • Deepen regulatory cooperation • Bolster the potential of the border region as a catalyst for economic development • Strengthen our shared border and make it more efficient • Enhance cooperation to create education and skills development programs for a better prepared workforce • Foster entrepreneurship and innovation • Promote the economic empowerment of women • Take other measures to better integrate our economies and make our region more competitive • Partner to promote development and electricity market integration in Central America • Advance trade liberalization at the regional and global levels • Support transparency and anti-corruption through the Open Government Partnership Our 2015 seminar will focus the regional partnership within the context of the HLED. While the HLED was administered broadly at the federal level, certainly the U.S. - Mexico border is among its goals and has been reflected in several initial outcomes. Some tangible examples of this are the economic cluster analysis and mapping led by the CaliBaja Region, the University President’s Summit held in Tijuana in February 2015, or even the Otay Mesa East-Mesa de Otay II Port of Entry project, recognized as a priority project under the HLED (Figure 4). This paper builds upon last year’s discussions at the binational seminar and identifies continuous collaboration efforts between our two countries at the local, regional, state, and federal levels in our California-Baja California border region. It also identifies recent planning efforts that have been completed, or are currently in progress. These projects support an array of real border issues and address the needs of mobility, health, employment, trade, and the environment. Background As a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the SANDAG mission includes building consensus throughout the San Diego region. Our region’s location on the border presents remarkable opportunities 2 Embassy of Mexico. Progress Report on the U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue. Last modified May 2013. http://embassyofmexico.org/web/HLEDingles.pdf 2 for our binational region and SANDAG has focused for many years on how the region could benefit more effectively from this strategic geographical location. With close proximity and shared resources of our two countries, maintaining