The Mexican interior is seeing large new investment from GM and DaimlerChrysler, in San Luis Potosi and Toluca, respectively.

Truck traffic snakes back from the Mariposa border crossing at Nogales, where waits can be as long as six hours as 1,400 trucks cross per day at a facility designed for 400 a day. A new crossing point at San Luis has received $42 million in federal funding. Funding for a reconfigured Mariposa is still being sought.

The projects in the border region, meanwhile, continue to be of the maquila variety, though there are a few infrastructure projects that exploit the border's ties to the Mexican coast.
   "Borderless Innovation," issued in January by the University of California- San Diego Crossborder Innovation and Competitiveness Initiative, sees opportunity and "untapped capabilities" for both sides of the San Diego- Baja California border region, specifically in biomedical devices, software, marine biotech, aerospace and defense.
   The advantages begin with approximately 3 million residents each in San Diego County and in Baja, many of whom are already employed in technology or science- oriented companies. The report says more than 120 San Diego-based businesses have operations on both sides.
   In fact, in 2004 Baja trailed only Nuevo Leon and the Federal District in its amount of foreign investment in manufacturing, with 88 percent coming from the U.S. However, Japan contributes five percent. And 79 percent of all Asian electronics investment in Mexico happens in Baja California.
   Tripping up development are challenges like border crossing delays and a dearth of science and engineering degree holders, despite the growing range of degree programs in both nations. For the 2003-2004 academic year, more than 5,300 tech-related degrees were awarded among a group of 11 major institutions in San Diego and Baja California. More than 1,000 undergrad degrees in the life sciences led the San Diego numbers, while just about the same number of engineering degrees led Baja. But as the recently located Wilson Greatbatch Technologies medical device plant in Tijuana demonstrates, looks can be deceiving.
   At the same time, a promising trend is the dramatic growth in post-graduate students in Mexico at large, from just over 41,000 in 1991 to more than 130,000 in 2003. Among the possibilities mentioned in the report is a cross-border aerospace engineering program, which could follow on precedents established by the MEXUS program and an engineering education partnership between Arizona State University and Tec de Monterrey.
   More and more, however, the infrastructure partnerships between the countries involve more hard than soft assets, taking the form of such developments as the Silicon Border technology park in Mexicali, a 15-square-mile (38.9-sq.-km.) development that is using promised tax breaks, a pending border crossing, $2 million in design and marketing and the presence of two power plants – one from Sempra and the other from Intergen – to lure a chip fab.
   In a February speech to the D.C.-based Center for Strategic & International Studies, Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther said his state has vaulted from 14th place to sixth in the country in tax revenues since 2001, and contributed 11 percent of the new jobs created across all of Mexico in 2005. He also spoke to the huge volume of legal border crossings and trade between the U.S. and his state alone, and spoke to another hard asset under consideration:
   "The so-called 'solution' of building one, two or three walls to further divide us will limit our potential, and will not result in bettering the opportunities and quality of life for those on either side of the border."