If California were a country, it would have the seventh-largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Home to more than 37 million people, the state is at the forefront of technological, environmental and political innovation.

California, previously a part of Mexico, borders with Baja California. Despite that border, the two “Californias” have been culturally, demographically, geographically and economically linked for centuries.

San Diego, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and about 120 miles south of Los Angeles, shares a 15-mile border with Tijuana that includes two border crossings. Every year, hundreds of billions dollars of merchandise and over 40 million people cross back and forth from San Diego to Tijuana.

The San Diego-Tijuana region is home to 5 million people, making it the largest bi-national conurbation shared between the United States and Mexico and the fourth largest in the world.

Since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, San Diego–Tijuana has become a dominant commercial center in the United States and Mexico..