OECD Territorial Reviews: Chihuahua, Mexico 2012
Located at the border with the US, Chihuahua has benefited from FDI and NAFTA. Chihuahua has been one of the richest regions in Mexico and one of the most dynamic in the OECD. However, the region’s FDI-trade link with the USA has also led to some vulnerability to external shocks. The two crises affecting the USA in the past decade affected Chihuahua more than any other state. Despite recent progress in the quality of education, other structural challenges such as lower productivity growth, high inactivity rates and dwindling employment rates have been factors in Chihuahua’s sluggish growth. Chihuahua not only displays large intra-regional and gender inequalities, but also the largest inter-ethnic inequality levels in the country. Chihuahua can gain from a territorial approach to policymaking that integrates sectoral policies, fostering value-added in rural activities, better linking SME-development and FDI-attraction policies, as well as between innovation capacities and applications. The region could also strengthen their recent inclusive governance arrangement with civil society and the private sector. Growth and development can only be possible if the current challenges in insecurity, water shortage and public finance are addressed.
Foreword and Acknowledgements
In a world marked by economic slowdown, ageing, migration, climate change and increasing inequality, policy makers are looking for new development paths. International debate since the crisis has called traditional economic models into question and the search is on for new approaches that can better reconcile economic growth with other social and environmental objectives. This crucial debate is focusing attention on the role that regions play in national economies, both as sources of underexploited potential and as the places where different policies can be most effectively integrated. Indeed, policy trade-offs are best addressed at the regional level, where it is often possible to identify the ways in which economic, social and environmental policies can be mutually reinforcing, rather than antagonistic, thereby optimising use of scarce public funds.