Reyna: RioPlex is now welcoming members, developing branding process

MCALLEN, Texas – RioPlex has appointed its first board member to its newly formed board of directors. 

Mario Reyna, former dean of business at South Texas College and coordinator for Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force, is the first person picked for the job by RioPlex CEO Joaquin Spamer for the one year term. 

Reyna spoke to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service about how RioPlex can augment the work of existing economic development corporations in the Rio Grande Valley region.

“RioPlex continues to develop. We are in the process now of inviting board members into the organization,” he said. “We’re hoping that within the next month or so we’ll have a complete set of board members that can work in the best interest of RioPlex.”

Reyna said RioPlex is also setting up a tiered membership category. There are four levels of membership with the highest one consisting of a $25,000 fee and the lowest at $1,000.

In addition, the entity is currently working with local organizations to help with the branding process, which they hope would be ready in less than two months.

“We have a lot of people involved, helping us with this process (branding), not only the local company but other individuals that can give us an objective opinion of what they think of the final results,” Reyna said.

Editor’s Note: Here is the video interview:

---

Story continued

RioPlex hopes to attract investors to the area and highlights the many possibilities that the Rio Grande Valley can provide.

“As we continue to go forward, the message is going to be that this is an area that is ripe for investments, for industrial activities, whether they’re manufacturing, biotechnology, micro-manufacturing or whatever it is that people want to do, this is the right area,” Reyna said. 

“When you look at the spectrum of all the sectors in the Rio Grande Valley and RioPlex on the northern side of Tamaulipas, they have a lot of manufacturing going on but on the U.S. side of RioPlex, that’s very light manufacturing. There’s only about 16,000 people that work in the manufacturing sector. So, we want this particular sector to go up and that’s the intent of RioPlex. RioPlex is going to invite industrial operations to come to our region to see that this is an area that they can invest (in), this is an area that has talented people. It is going to help, we believe, everybody in the local area.”

Given the RGV has many EDCs, RioPlex is hoping to be able to work with all of them from both sides of the border in order to promote the region as a unified entity. Reyna said RioPlex aims to enhance the work they are already doing.

“It’s going to work fantastic because we’re going to complement whatever they are doing. So, McAllen, Mission, Pharr, Edinburg, Weslaco, Harlingen, Brownsville, and all the other ones in between, we talked to them already and explained to them what is going on so they can continue to do what they’re doing and RioPlex is telling them, ‘This is how we’re going to support you in attracting additional customers,’” Reyna said.

One of the things that RioPlex hopes to highlight to investors is the high population numbers that they are involved with.

“When you have a city of 150,000 individuals well  it’s 150,000, but when you have RioPlex with 3 million people, then that makes a difference so that’s the intent with RioPlex to try and tell the world this is an area that has 3 million people, that has a lot of border crossing activity going on, a lot of bridges, we have a spaceport, we have several sea ports, we have an international railroad crossing, so who wouldn’t pay attention to all this activity,” Reyna said. “When you have this huge population that knows about manufacturing, people would be interested.”

Reyna said there is a section in the USMCA that states that “at least 40% of the jobs in manufacturing have to be paid at $16 an hour, well, this is the best location for us at $16 an hour.”

“So, I think when people realize there’s this strategic location right on the border with all these people that understand manufacturing, I think this is an ideal location, he said. “Manufacturing is good and since we only have like 2.7% of our population working in manufacturing, it makes perfect sense that this is an area that we need to grow because this is an area that will leave the most money locally.”

Reyna said EDC counterparts in Mexico have shown positive interest in working with RioPlex.

“They like the idea, for the most part. We haven’t heard any naysayers so I think that’s going to blend real well because at the end of the day RioPlex is going to help promote their regions so if we’re helping to promote the region, why would anyone not like it?” Reyna said. 

RioPlex hopes to highlight the region’s many workforce and education attributes.

“The intent is to have a well-defined region that has X number of population, that has the medical school, that has universities, technical schools, community colleges, and so forth. I think those are fantastic assets that we can promote,” he said. “When you have the high schools getting ready to promote information technology, they’re getting ready to promote the health industry, the governmental industry, the law enforcement industry, I think that says a lot about the region. When you look at the numbers of the people that are enrolled, in Hidalgo County alone there’s 30,000 students at the public-school area. And when you look at the universities, there are huge numbers that are enrolled.”

Reyna said those numbers mean a lot to big investors. And in order to attract them, Reyna said the EDCs should work together and RioPlex is setting up a platform where this can be done.

“We’re going to set up what we call a communication hub and put in that platform all the opportunities that are available out there. Of course, everything here is voluntary. No one is going to be forced to do anything,” he said. “For example, if there is an opportunity to go, let’s say, Korea, does it make sense that everybody go there or would it make more sense that one entity from our region goes to Korea and takes care of Korea. It makes better sense that we all spread out and promote the region instead of all of us going to the same region and then we have to fight for your attention when we’re there. So, that’s the idea for the communication hub.”

Reyna said their goal of RioPlex is to promote the region in every way it can.

“We want for business leaders that are involved in economic development, we want the industrial developers, to join us in our efforts because this is something that is going to help everybody,” he added. 

The post Reyna: RioPlex is now welcoming members, developing branding process appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.