Mexican Local Diplomacy Newsletter January 2021

The Local Diplomacy Studies Commission (CEDL) of the Mexican Center for International Relations (CEMERI) is pleased to present the first bulletin of international actions of Mexican local governments, carried out in the month of January 2021.

The present work is a compilation of the interactions that the States and Municipalities in Mexico carried out with international actors, since these interactions have a place in the concept of [Local Diplomacy](https://cemeri.org/enciclopedia/que -is-local-diplomacy/). The purpose of this bulletin, and of the following monthly deliveries, is to have a compilation tool for this type of actions, so that students, academic staff, public servants, and any public interested in Local Diplomacy in Mexico can access in a simple and efficient way to this type of information. In addition, it is intended to encourage interest in this concept, so that more government actors carry out international actions, taking as an example or being inspired by those proposed here.

The bulletin is divided into eight subheadings, related to the eight regions that comprise the Mexican Republic in order to easily locate the federal entities that comprise it. Among the actions that took place this month, we can highlight the following: In the Northwest region, the inauguration of the medical and business crossing from Tijuana to the United States stands out, which will benefit medical tourism and business tourism, since it facilitates the arrival at hospitals and clinics in the city; In the Northeast region, the opening of the symposium of the Mexican-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry stands out, in which executives of that chamber body, leaders of different German companies and Mexican businessmen participated.

Within the Western region, we can point out the meeting between His Excellency the Chinese Ambassador to Mexico, Zhu Qingqiao, and the Governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, with the aim of consolidating international ties between China and this local government; for the eastern region, it stands out that the alliance between Puebla and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) seeks to implement a policy of administrative simplification that allows digitizing more procedures and services.

In the North Central region, the relationship between Zacatecas and Microsoft stands out due to the signing of various agreements between the parties to reinforce the digital skills of the Zacatecas population; Regarding the Central South region, we can comment that the PILARES program in Mexico City received recognition from Unesco.

Finally, in the last two regions, it is noteworthy that in the Southwest region, the state of Guerrero signed an agreement with the international company Mercado Libre to offer articles produced by companies of the entity that will be offered on the company's platform; and in the Southeast region, what sets an important pattern is the joint project between the government of Yucatan and the OECD to develop a digital investment window to simplify procedures.

We hope this information is of interest to you, and we appreciate the attention given and support given to this project.