36 / 132
Cross-border
economic
development
36
Territory portraits: economic development on different borders
Economic fabric
The physical geography of this border, marked as it is by the Pyrenees
and two coastal corridors, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, has a strong
impact on the economic fabric of the border region. Thus, the coastlines
play an important logistical role. 85% of goods and 70% of travellers
pass through these two heavily-congested corridors and there are
plans to modernise the transport infrastructures here. The majority
of the mountain territory has a residential economy, mainly based on
tourism and handicrafts.
In terms of the main economic sectors, the service sector is very
dominant in the economies of Andorra and the departments of Pyrénées-
Orientales and Haute-Garonne, while there is much more industry in the
provinces of Guipuzkoa, Navarra and Girona. Lastly, the areas where
the agricultural sector is most dominant are the provinces of Huesca
and Lérida and the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. A number of
sectors are represented along the whole of the border: agri-business,
biotechnologies-healthcare, renewable energies and logistics-transport.
In addition, in certain territories, we can note relative specialisms,
such as aerospace (Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster in Midi-
Pyrénées and Aquitaine).
Along most of this border, there is a predominance of SMEs and even very
small enterprises (in mountainous areas, mainly handicraft businesses),
despite the specificity of territories such as Guipuzkoa where there are
more medium-sized companies.
Sectors of economic cooperation
Companies here tend to be involved more in international rather than
local transactions, especially along the coastal parts of the border, which
serve as important transport corridors. Here we can note a strengthening
of economic links over the past few years, in particular in those areas
where a shared identity, Basque or Catalan, plays an important role
(agri-business, tourism). In the Pyrenees, despite the lack of transport
connections, which is a major obstacle to economic exchanges, cross-
border economic relations are very strong as the economies are focused
more on tourism and agri-business, sectors in which local transactions
are more frequent. In general terms, a change has taken place since the
recent economic crisis as more and more Spanish firms have turned
to local transactions with the French border territories.
Ì
Ì
Andorra is a very particular case.
As the Principality is highly
specialised in the services sector, foreign trade is predominant.
Trade with Spain is at present three times higher than that with
France, a reversal of the trend in the 1990s.
The Basque Eurocity