NADB CEO Geronimo Gutierrez participates in Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute Conference “Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border”
Washington, D.C. – Geronimo Gutierrez, CEO of the North American Development Bank (NADB) is participating in the third annual conference “Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border” organized by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and the Border Trade Alliance.
Mr. Gutierrez, along with Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary of International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Sergio Alcocer, a researcher from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, are sharing their thoughts on the panel “Anatomy of a Relationship: The Evolution of U.S.-Mexico Cooperation in Border Management”.
“NADB is one of the few truly bilateral entities whose evolution provides good lessons for border management, infrastructure development and for future capacity-building for border communities,” commented Mr. Gutierrez during his presentation.
He explained that in its more than 20 years of existence, the Bank and its sister institution, the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BEEC), have gone through a series of changes in policies and reforms to adapt to the needs of the border region and maximize the capacity of both institutions. The integration of both organizations into a single entity, which is still in process, is the most recent of these strategic changes.
From his point of view, the U.S.-Mexico border region is in need of a comprehensive sustainability plan with conservation and efficient water management as the key objective which will require significant cooperation among different authorities from both sides of the border, as well as considerable investments in infrastructure to build a competitive U.S.-Mexico border.
“Given its bilateral nature and the experience accumulated over 20 years, NADB can and should continue to play an important role in the development and financing of border infrastructure to include ports of entry,” concluded Mr. Gutierrez.
This one-day conference, taking place at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, focus on improving border management in order to strengthen the competitiveness of both the United States and Mexico with special attention to transportation infrastructure, trade facilitation, human capital development, financial transactions, and the need for efforts that simultaneously support security and efficiency in border management.