Silva: The ‘One Region, One Voice’ marketing campaign now includes North Tamaulipas

WESLACO, Texas – Recognizing the need to focus and market the whole region, including North Tamaulipas, the Rio Grande Valley Partnership has set up an international trade subcommittee.

The decision to set up the committee was approved by directors at last week’s board meeting. 

Interviewed prior to the meeting, RGVP President Daniel Silva said: “The Partnership will take action to adopt an International Trade Subcommittee. We’re going to put together members with a focus on starting to include Tamaulipas, northern Mexico, because they are our trading partners. We are including them in our marketing efforts. It’s no longer just 1.4 million people. It’s three million people including that population. And it’s important for us to acknowledge that.”

Asked if this means the Partnership’s One Region, One Voice marketing campaign will now include North Tamaulipas, Silva said: “Yes. Our goal will be to represent the entire region. They (North Tamaulipas) affect our economy in a positive way. We have trade with them we have been. Their maquiladoras are really those sister city plants. So, our goal is to represent this entire region.”

RGVP’s decision to include North Tamaulipas in its focus and marketing campaign will likely be music to the ears of the CEO Group. Under the leadership of industrial developer Joaquin Spamer, the CEO Group has been pushing for one name to market the combined Valley and North Tamaulipas region. The CEO Group is a subcommittee of the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force. This task force was set up by Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez to address poverty.

RGVP’s Silva said his organization can and is leading the charge for regional unity. He said there is no need for a duplication of efforts when it comes to marketing the region.

“I don’t want people to get confused. Joaquin is a great friend of mine and and I appreciate the Judge. I know what they’re trying to do but I think there’s a way to wrap it into what we’re already making momentum on. Some people are asking me, hey, hold on, who is marketing our region? There have been five or six people reach out to me and they cite articles in the Rio Grande Guardian. I just want to make sure that we don’t confuse people. The Partnership is doing what the industrial developers want to see happen,” Silva said.

Veteran broadcast Ron Whitlock, a board member of the Valley Partnership back in 1968, said he welcomed RGVP’s creation of an international trade subcommittee and its decision to market North Tamaulipas alongside the Valley.

“A former president of the Partnership, the late, great, Bill Summers used to promote our region in Tamaulipas a lot. He would stage events in various places in the state. And, the Partnership had an office in Victoria, Tamaulipas. He would also bring the Tamaulipas chambers of commerce to the Valley. Bill always looked south and I am pleased the Partnership is doing so again,” Whitlock said. 

COSTEP’s perspective

Rick Carrera, COSTEP’s economic development director.

Rick Carrera, director of international trade for the Council for South Texas Economic Progress, said he agrees that the region needs to be united when it markets itself abroad.

“By including North Tamaulipas we have a binational advantage to leverage. While the recent Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force event (at La Fogata in Mission) was happening, I was returning from a site selector event in Virginia. And just about all the site selectors I spoke to were encouraged by that binational aspect that we have, because they’re well aware of the near-shoring efforts that are currently underway,” Carrera said.

“They look at this area as a prime spot for potential growth and relocation expansion because they can still keep operations in the U.S. and have their operations in Mexico. It just creates more advantages and more aspects of the operation that perhaps they hadn’t even thought about yet.”

Carrera said he attended the Business Facilities Live Exchange event in Virginia in order to show site selectors “how we work out from the logistical advantage and locational advantage. It’s starting to open up more doors.”

Carrera added: “Some of the site selectors had heard of our region. Honestly, there were several that have not. They understood South Texas to be San Antonio. I explained to them that there is a four-hour drive south from San Antonio to the Rio South Texas region. When I explained the assets that we bring to the table in terms of our young workforce, the available property, the Port of Brownsville, rail access to Mexico, the interstate highway, access to several ports of entry, eyes started to open up.”

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