The idea is that local / regional / national governments need to build their governance structures like the frame of a house: rigid enough to withstand immediate pressures but flexible enough to overcome the tests of time.

My recommendation to any growing team – and especially in this context of regional cooperation – would be that they spend a lot of time thinking about what “cooperation” will really mean and where exactly the long-term synergies are: Will they collectively be able to attract a higher level of FDI (domestic and international) that they are unable to do separately? What are the technical and political barriers that are unique to their separate structures and can they be harmonized? (To continue with the housing metaphor: Would it make sense to have add on “neighboring counties” to the larger house of Philadelphia or are the structural designs so incompatible that corridors connecting each of the neighboring homes to the main house would be a better solution?).

In sum, my instinctual response without knowing the day-to-day is to question the blueprint and to wonder whether a new design is in order.