With an emerging auto cluster to match an existing electronics sector, Baja California is positioned for continued growth.

      Electronics traditionally led the way in Baja California, but in recent years Toyota Motor Company has opened a truck assembly plant between Tijuana and Tecate, B.C. And with new industries emerging in biotechnology, healthcare and aerospace, Baja California is diversifying its base. Electronics, however, still remain the region’s major focus.

      More than 30 percent of the electronics maquilas in Mexico are clustered in Tijuana, Mexicali.

      Baja California is the Mexico border state with the largest number of electronics plants (105) employing approximately 65,000 people. According to Baja California’s Economic Development Office, in 2004, maquiladoras in the state produced 17.7 million television sets and computer monitors. Generating that level of production were the seven largest electronic maquiladoras: Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita, Sanyo, Samsung, Sony, and Sharp. While some of these plants continue to produce conventional television and computer monitor sets, they are switching to the manufacture of technologies including flat screen sets: Liquid Crystal Diode (LCD), Digital Light Processing (DLP) and plasma.

      Conventional television still makes up approximately 30 percent of all production, with more than 1,200 employees; Panasonic is dedicated to the production of tuners for television sets using CRT and LCD technology.

Experience

      More than three decades of factory-work experience have shaped its infrastructure and made its services so sophisticated that the entire economy supports industrial growth. Baja California offers a variety of public and private organizations whose sole purpose is to streamline the establishment of new industries and optimize operations. Human and technical support is available from municipal, state and federal government offices as well as from private businesses.

      Baja California offers full service of multimodal technology incorporated to transportation. Six ports of entry give direct access into the United States.. The Mexican national railway system enters through Mexicali and continues into California. The state’s highway system fully connects Baja California’s five counties with the rest of Mexico.

      Seaport facilities in Ensenada provide full services for freight transportation. Industry is also served by the Port of Long Beach, the largest in Southern California.

      Four international airports in Tijuana, Mexicali, San Felipe and Ensenada connect with national and international destinations. The San Diego and Los Angeles International Airports are located less than two hours from the border, providing flights to practically anywhere in the world. Baja California offers the latest in voice and data communication. Fiber optic telephone lines, digital wireless service, video conferencing and full Internet services.

Energy

      Mexicali has the second largest Geothermal Electricity Generating Plant in the world. With a production capacity of over 720 Megawatts, Cerro Prieto Geothermal plant provides electricity in such abundance, that the excess of energy is exported to the United States.

      Also, there are two other Energy plants, InterGen’s La Rosita Power is a 1,065 MW natural gas-fired, combined-cycle facility; and Sempra; a 600- megawatt electric generating facility in Mexicali that was designed to be one of the cleanest and most efficient power plants in North America. The plant, which only uses clean-burning natural gas as a fuel source, features the latest in air emissions-reduction technologies.

      Together they produce 1665 Megawatts; an important percentage is also exported to the United States.

      The food, beverage and tobacco sub-sector dominates the industrial activity, followed by metallic products, machinery and equipment, textile, wood and paper industries.

      Neighboring San Diego has experienced economic development in the defense industry, as well as the biotechnology, aerospace, electronics and computer industries. Both San Diego and Tijuana have enjoyed positive growth over the last few years. In Tijuana, foreign manufacturing has steadily generated jobs. Manufacturing in Tijuana represent 45 percent of the permanent jobs in the private sector.

      Tijuana provides a favorable environment for manufacturing operations. Labor and a readily available and mature workforce, including technical personnel, competitive labor cost and easy access to the U.S. together with the services and facilities available in San Diego make it an ideal manufacturing location.

      Tijuana’s local economy strength results from trade and tourism service with manufacturing running a close second.

      In Baja California and especially in Tijuana, labor needs are well met. Production workers, management and technical employees can be found locally, a direct result of universities and technical training school structuring industry specific programs.

San Diego benefit

      San Diego has the third largest concentration of biotech companies in the United States with more than 240 biomedical/bioscience laboratories. San Diego medical companies are world-class leaders in the development and production of medications and diagnostic tools for hundreds of diseases. San Diego’s biotechnology sector directly employs nearly 25,800 individuals.

      The telecommunications industry cluster is the fastest growing industry cluster in the San Diego region. The region now has more than 75,000 miles of fiber underground optics, more than any other region in the country. Today, San Diego has solidified its position as the wireless communication capital of the world. The telecommunications cluster employs approximately 8,500 people.

      Defense and space manufacturing is now the region’s fourth largest industrial cluster. Key sectors include aircraft, shipbuilding and repair, and guided missiles and space vehicles. Additionally, San Diego is a designated port of the U.S. Navy. San Diego boasts nearly 1,200 companies in the defense and space cluster, employing more than 21,600 people.

      The electronics industry is comprised of two segments: electronics and electrical machinery and instruments; each contributes nearly $3 billion each to the regional economy, and employs tens of thousands of people.

      Employment categories such as engineering and management, business consulting, adverting, and legal services grew tremendously in the 1990s. The growth in San Diego exports over the years has been exponential because large portions of San Diego’s international business activity comes from businesses that service or facilitate trade.

New production processes

      In Mexico, the tendency to intensify production processes based on more advanced technology mean more investment is needed for its financing. The relation with the U.S. economy and the presence of foreign investment has allowed the access of new production processes.

      The established industrial structure already produces intermediate goods for the integration of production chains, which is the direction taken for industries to better exploit its production potential. It is possible to integrate various production chains, such as the electronic consumer goods in Tijuana.

      The vocations by region can be identified in the following manner:

Mexicali

      Metal Products, Machinery and Equipment: Manufacture of equipment for trailers; of metallic structures for constructions; repair of metallic tanks; metallic doors and barrages; repair of railway equipment, nails, studs and staples; industrial cauldrons; tractors and agriculture equipment; auto parts.

      Textiles: Cotton threading; thread for sewing, knitting and embroil; cotton limes; absorbent cotton, bandages and derivations; dye and stamping of cloth fabrics and dressmaking.

      Agriculture:Vegetable selecting and packing; preparation and canning of fruits and legumes; fruits and legumes dehydration; elaboration of prepared soups and stews and elaboration of extracts for beef, chicken, fish, seafood and vegetable broths.

      Aquatic cultivation: Reproduction center for seed of mollusks and bivalves, fish and crustacean cultivation.

Tijuana

      Maquiladora industry: Medical area; electronic components; equipment for the work of metal; auto parts; domestic electronic devices; and electronics for consumers.

      Machinery and equipment: Metallic furniture; structural metallic products; electronic machinery and equipment; domestic electronic devices and auto parts.

Ensenada

      Agricultural: Industrial processing of tomato; industrial processing of potato; vegetables selecting and packing; preparation of frozen food for export; elaboration and use of wines; preparation, conservation and canning of fruits and legumes.

      Aquatic cultivation: Reproduction center for mollusks and bivalves; mollusk, crustacean, echinoderm, fish and seaweed cultivation.

      Fishery: Canning, freezing, smoking and dehydrating of maritime species; shipyards.

Tecate

      Maquiladora industry: Medical area; electronic components; domestic electronic devices; plastic products.

      Machinery and equipment: Metallic furniture; structural metallic products; electric products; electronic devices and equipment.

      Opportunities for investment include:

Electronics and computers

      •Manufacture, joint and design of computers and peripheral equipment.

      •Manufacture, joint and design of telephone and radio-phonic communication equipment.

      •Manufacture, joint and design of electronic components and devices.

Automobile industry

      •Manufacture and joint of transport for general carrying.

      •Manufacture and joint of transport for special carrying.

      •Design of special accessories for transport.

      •Manufacture of special accessories for transport.

      •Maintenance services for transports (gasoline, diesel)

Glass industry

      •Manufacture of glass fiber.

      •Commercialization of glass containers.

      •Manufacture of refractory crystal items.

      •Collection of residue glass

Cement industry

      •Manufacture of bathrooms furniture (washstands, bowls, etc).

      •Manufacture of decorative tile..

      •Manufacture of concrete products.

      •Manufacture of ceramic products utilized in the electric industry.

      •Manufacture of thermal insulators.

      •Manufacture of domestic ceramic products..

Paper Industry

      •Elaboration of cardboard boxes and containers for special uses..

      •Elaboration of packaging products for special maquiladora uses..

Construction

      •Construction of infrastructure.

      •Construction of urban infrastructure.

Commerce

      •Development of national exemptions.

      •Establishment of exempted businesses.

      •Services for foreign trade.