The contract between CODEEN, the Ensenada Economic Development Council, and ILS LEDA has just been signed to carry out the first part of the process of opening a local Development Agency for the municipality of Ensenada, which has been agreed to continue with its completion.

Ensenada is the third city in order of importance in the State of Baja California, after Mexicali and Tijuana, and in 2018, the Municipality of Ensenada was declared a metropolitan area, which implies the need to work in a more complex manner for the entire development process planning.

The city has a high diversity of economic activities, which refer to the fishing-aquaculture sector, high-value agricultural products, destined largely for export, livestock, the construction sector, mining, energy, water and gas, to the industrial sector, and to tourism, thanks to its vast cultural diversity and its benevolent climate. In addition, a point of strength is the academic offer, which constitutes a pole of development for highly competent graduates.

Within this framework and to strengthen the capacity of the territory to respond to future economic challenges, social and environmental issues, CODEEN decided to carry out the process of establishing a Local Economic Development Agency and asked ILS LEDA to provide its support in this matter.

The agreement with ILS LEDA provides for the completion of four phases: Feasibility, Design, Opening and Start-up.

The signed contract refers to the completion of the first two phases and aims to define the possible organisation of the LEDA, including the statutory bodies, the deliverable services and their priority, the role of the LEDA and the coordination modality between the partners, through the formation of a Promotion Committee, which includes representatives of the various economic, productive, social, environmental, and service sectors.

The next phase will end the process.

The first ILS LEDA mission for the technical assistance programme is scheduled for the beginning of July.