The mayor of the city of San Diego, Bob Filner, has the binational office in his agenda which will be a link between the city of Tijuana and San Diego. This office will be located at the Via Corporativo (Corporate Way) building in Tijuana, and will be headed by Mario Lopez. This information was confirmed by Filner on Tuesday in his first report.

In this report, Filner said, "The opening of an office in Tijuana for border affairs is the first step to building a society to coordinate border infrastructure improvements and for marketing our binational region to international investment."

The relationship with Mexico is a priority for the mayor, because it is considered that Mexicans are one of the biggest sources that contribute a good percentage to the economy of the region. The border crossing, water, sewage, education, economy and culture are just some of the topics that will be discussed in this new office.

"The first topic is economic development, job creation, competitiveness and as mentioned by the mayor, how to promote the mega San Diego-Tijuana region. We are also working actively to obtain the funds for phase three of the expansion of the checkpoint at the San Ysidro border. The issue of crossing the border and reducing the waiting time is one of the priorities of his administration, and it is something that he is working on with the relationships he has in Washington." said Mario Lopez.

Joy.Ruvalcaba@sandiegored.com

Omar.Martinez@sandiegored.com