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SAN DIEGO – Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa envisions the U.S.-Mexico border, with its vital trade and dynamic communities, as playing a critical role in strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

“In this new vision for the future we need to look for a much stronger integration between our countries in our daily lives,” Espinosa told business leaders, academics and representatives of NGOs during a Nov. 18 private luncheon in San Diego co-hosted by the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego and the Institute of the Americas.

“There are so many clearly identified areas where we could develop so much more,” Espinosa said.  “The big challenge is how to move the political agenda.”

Espinosa singled out the work done by the Institute of the Americas in the San Diego-Tijuana region as an example of an initiative that can bring border communities together.  She also praised efforts by business and community representatives attending the luncheon “to develop the awareness of what is being done on both sides of the border.”

While “there is a lot of potential in this region,” Remedios Gomez Arnau, Consul General of Mexico in San Diego, said   “There is a lot of potential in this region,” said Remedios Gómez Arnau, Consul General of Mexico in San Diego.“there is something that is not allowing us to go forward. There are many contacts between businesses and chambers of commerce, but then you have the rest of the people who ignore that there is another country 15 miles to the south.”

The U.S. and Mexican governments must “find a way to make the border an advantage instead of a disadvantage,” said Ambassador Charles S. Shapiro, president of the Institute of the Americas.

Shapiro noted that border delays for trucks transporting auto parts from Mexico to U.S. manufacturers add $800 to the cost of new cars. “We need to find a way to resolve that,” he said.  “San Diegans should be the people working on that.”

Both Deborah Szekely, owner of Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Baja California, and San Diego developer Aaron Feldman expressed concern about Mexico’s negative image.

“The perception is that in Tijuana and everywhere south, things are not as they should be,” Feldman said.  “We need to work to have the relationship be more positive.”

David Mares, director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies on the UCSD campus, described Mexico as a “dynamic, thriving, modern society,” while several participants at the luncheon discussed ways in which their companies and organizations are working to bring the United States and Mexico closer together.

Institute of the Americas board member Ignacio Hernandez explained the unique way in which he links Mexico and the United States through his company, MexGrocer.com.  Hernandez, who offers Mexican cooking ingredients through his on-line company, says he is “selling nostalgia” to Mexicans living in the United States.

In the area of power generation, Nobel Laureate Mario Molina noted that Baja California is an important source of renewable energy which could be produced through bi-national joint ventures and exported to the United States.

Mexicali is poised to become a major producer of geothermal energy, said Molina, who was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on the effect of chloroflurocarbons in the atmosphere.

Another possible California-Baja California joint venture is the production of solar energy, Molina said.“We are very close to one of the best areas on the planet to produce solar power.“We are very close to one of the best areas on the planet to produce solar power,” said Nobel Laureate Mario Molina

Richard Palmer, president and CEO of Los Angeles-based Global Clean Energy which employs 500 Mexican workers to produce biofuel on 15,000 acres on the Yucatan peninsula, said, “The border should not be the issue. The challenge is to work on underutilized resources in your country. There is underutilization of land in Mexico and there is underutilization of human resources.”

Richard Kiy, president of the International Community Foundation, said his organization also works in the areas of environmental conservation, health and human services.  The foundation, which has projects in 16 Mexican states, hopes to “expand giving in Mexico,” while giving “voice to those non-profits who are unheard and who are working on some very tough issues.”

In academics and science, the participants said there are numerous opportunities for collaboration.

David FitzGerald, associate director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UCSD, spoke of ways that the U.S. and Mexican governments can work together to resolve the thorny issue of immigration.

And Keith Pezzoli, director of field research and lecturer in the Urban Studies and Planning Program at the University of California, San Diego, pointed to the strong scientific presence on both sides of the border.  “This region can stand up and be a model.”

Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, is working on a high-speed, fiber optics connection that will support an Internet II link between Mexican scholars and international scholars.  He said that connection is scheduled to go live in 2012.

Espinosa commended each of the participants for “your commitment to working with Mexico and for Mexico.”

“Listening to so many fantastic ideas for the well-being of our two countries is enormously encouraging to me,” Espinosa said. “Whatever happens here, in this region, is of enormous impact to both of our countries.”