Last week the SEDATU, with the support of the European Union's EUROsociAL Programme and in coordination with other Mexican government institutions, inaugurated the "Evaluation System for Regional Development Programmes" workshop to discuss and reflect on methodological approaches to selecting strategic regional projects, a key aspect of its regional policy. It involves leveraging the economic, commercial and industrial development potentials of regions, as well as their productive profile and the environmental and socio-demographic characteristics.

During the event, the SEDATU Deputy Secretary of Urban Development and Housing, Alejandro Nieto Enríquez, mentioned that prioritisation of investment projects with regional impact contributes substantially to social cohesion and indicated that the participation of the different orders of government demonstrates that regional development is a theme of shared responsibility. For its part, the Director General of Regional Development of the SEDATU, Jorge Carlos Díaz, stated that economic and social cohesion can only be achieved by closing development gaps between regions.

EUROsociAL mobilised the experience of the Republic of Serbia, which presented in the workshop the lines applied in that country in terms of methodologies, selection criteria, and prioritisation of infrastructure projects. Serbia, an EU candidate country which had no previous installed capacity for policy development, whether institutional or technical, or access to European structural funds, benefited from the learning stimulated by the European Commission through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). The changes and reforms undertaken by Serbia were of great interest to Mexico, which is facing this same process with a similar starting point.

The workshop participants included various secretariats of state and national commissions, as well as Mexico's Trust Fund for Regional Development of the southern region (FIDESUR) and Trust fund for Regional Development of the west central region (FIDERCO).