On January 24, 2023 through a press conference, the Ensenada Economic Development Council (Codeen) reported on the initiative undertaken to create the first Local Economic Development Agency in Mexico, through which through which the strategic projects proposed in the 2030 agenda will be channeled, with the support and advice of ILS LEDA, in addition to similar entities in various countries of Europe and Latin America.
The President of Codeen, Héctor Contreras Luengas, announced the new vision of CODEEN with international scope and management, during the meeting attended by business leaders, Marco Antonio Navarro, representative of the Business Coordinating Council of Ensenada; Amalia Vizcarra Berumen, President of Canacintra, Héctor Uraga Peralta, President of Consulten, Alejandro Flores Zúñiga, director of Codeen and Aura A. Morales García, project coordinator at Codeen and manager of the Ensenada Development Agency initiative.
Linked by the Zoom platform, Franco Torres, in Nariño Colombia and Giancarlo Canzanelli, president of ILS LEDA, precursor and promoter of other 45 local economic development agencies, from Naples Italy, reported that the LEDAs are legal, non-profit structures, constituted by public and private territorial entities that coordinate and/or provide various services to companies, population, and institutions in charge of territorial promotion, economic revitalization, technical assistance, credit, and training, and aimed at competitive, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive territorial economic development.
Héctor Contreras Luengas, President of CODEEN and the first link in Mexico for ISLEDA, the promoter body for development agencies in Europe and Latin America, said that a first collaboration with ILS LEDA, parallel to the creation of the Development Agency, was established with the formulation of a project submitted to the European Union to strengthen civil society organizations in Ensenada in actions that tend to promote and specify good governance platforms for the work of young people and women workers who are most vulnerable in the informal economy within a period of time 36 months
Aura A. Morales García, project coordinator at Codeen and manager of the Ensenada Development Agency initiative, explained the advantage of having the first Development Agency in Mexico in a territorial entity with as much potential as Ensenada, which offers Cohesion of the partners and the management group, long-term shared vision, financial autonomy, technical capacity to provide quality services, link between local needs and opportunities.
The manager for Latin America of ILS LEDA, Franco Torres, agreed that the territory of Ensenada has all the characteristics to work on the development of the first Mexican LEDA.
Linked by video call from Italy, Giancarlo Canzanelli, president of ILS LEDA, mentioned that after signing a collaboration framework agreement in November of last year, ILS LEDA and Codeen are defining the agenda and following up on the tasks for its implementation; and, thus, begin with the field work that seeks to bring to light the Development Agency this year.
