By Florencia Alba
Alliances for Competitiveness
Shocks like the one we had to go through this year impact on all levels and dimensions of life. The international system is no exception: its organization changes, the way in which the actors are linked varies and new players emerge.
This drives me thinking about Latin America: how is the region facing the current pandemic? Can we turn the negative effects of the crisis caused by COVID-19 into opportunities for regional development? Yes we can. The opportunity exists and the conditions are given. We just have to find a way to implement the right recipes.
The closure of borders as a generalized measure to prevent the spread of the virus challenged some aspects of globalization as we knew it: it affected international trade, foreign direct investment, the development of new businesses, and impacted on value chains. This sequence of events highlighted the asymmetries imbricated in Latin America, mainly associated with the low degree of territorial and productive integration.
In this opportunity, I will focus on cross-border territories for three reasons: 1) the economic crisis can only be overcome with greater levels of interconnection and commercial flows; 2) border regions can be the key to a more harmonious and equitable integration; and 3) these are territories with many conditions to enhance -human capital, production, natural resources.
So, how do we manage to stage those communities that live in border regions? How do we ensure that their populations and companies receive quality services? How can we coordinate health, infrastructure, safety and environmental policies and work alongside communities who share a territory, interact on a daily basis, but are divided by international barriers? How do we embrace their potential to turn them into competitive territories?
The answer is: joining forces to gain competitiveness. This is what cooperation is all about.
When cooperation involves cities located on the border of two or more contiguous countries, we call it “cross-border” and it is the most appropriate tool to empower and develop this type of territory — often neglected -, making its resources visible and improving its competitiveness conditions.
This tool, that in recent years has gained ground in the public agenda and academic debates, has two peculiarities: first, it involves communities anchored to the same territory that could be part of the same region and, secondly, the idea of solutions for the problems of this type of communities has as an additional complexity: the fact of involving actors at all levels — local, national, regional and international.
There are many incentives to cooperate. Like any type of collaboration, cooperation between neighboring communities arises when a problem is identified and interests are ordered to achieve better results than those that can be obtained with individual effort. This exercise allows localities to manage resources in a more efficient way; stimulates dialogue and the exchange of information (which contributes to mutual trust); improves the supply of public services and the conditions of local competitiveness.
As a consequence, a properly designed and implemented innovative project can work as a catalyst for development, turning the region into a true node of attraction for private investment and job creation, generating a virtuous circle that ultimately benefits citizens and local businesses. In this sense, the most advanced stages of this type of process are those in which citizens choose to remain in their communities of origin, instead of migrating to another region in search of a better quality of life.
In Latin America, this strategy still has a lot of ground to gain, but the good news is that the conditions are in place for that to happen.
The region’s borderline extends for 41.000 km It is a vast territory, with the presence of natural barriers and geographical accidents and, most importantly, there are still structural asymmetries that make it the most unequal region in the world. These characteristics have made the integration of Latin America difficult. However, in recent decades, the region has undergone processes that favor the development of projects of the magnitude that cross-border cooperation proposes.
On the one hand, Latin America has undergone a process of political decentralization that has generated local governments gaining new powers, which allow them to adopt an active and leading role in bottom-up decision making processes. On the other hand, in geopolitical terms, Latin America is a peaceful region. This promotes the foundation of trust and shared culture that these processes entail. Finally, the institutional and legal framework necessary for the development of international cooperation projects exists.
The conditions are really there. We have to challenge ourselves to look at the region from a new perspective, definitely different from the traditional State-centric vision. This will allow us to identify a new configuration of territorial spaces that have resources to enhance and value.
Do we dare to think of the cities of Encarnación (Paraguay) and Posadas (Argentina) as a tourism hub for conventions and a gateway to Mercosur? What would happen if Mendoza articulates human capital, infrastructure and services with Santiago de Chile to form a global technological pole? The combinations and possibilities are endless. The current situation caused by the pandemic highlights the need to discuss alternative forms of inter-state relations and cross-border cooperation is presented as an opportunity to face common problems. Not only can it mitigate the effects of the crisis on health, but it can also develop joint solutions and strategic alliances in the mid and long term.
In brief, fostering cooperation between border regions has a positive impact on regional development, and on strengthening local capacities, improving the quality of life of the populations involved. This generates, in turn, a sense of belonging on the part of citizens and promotes the visibility of generally neglected territories.
Making alliances, using innovative tools and generating the appropriate incentives can be a strategy to embrace the potentiality of cross-border territories and explore new forms of development for the region.
