Valley EDCs to chose their targeted industries

PHARR, Texas – Economic development leaders in the Rio Grande Valley are going to meet next week to decide which industries they are going to focus their efforts on.

The private meeting, organized by the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force and the ad hoc CEO Club, will take place May 8 at UT-Rio Grande Valley’s Community Engagement & Student Success (CESS) Building in Edinburg.

Details of the event were announced by Adam Gonzalez, CEO of the Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP) at a meeting with national site selectors. The meeting was co-hosted by COSTEP and Pharr Economic Development Corporation and held at the Forum by Regency in Pharr. 

Discussion on which industries to target was kickstarted by one of the four site selectors present, Scott Kupperman, of Chicago-based Kupperman Location Solutions. 

After listening to a presentation from COSTEP’s economic development director, Rick Carrera, Kupperman said: “Are those your target industries?” Carrera had mentioned the automotive, aerospace, biomedical, and energy sectors. “Those who are here now, is that more of what you want?” Kupperman said.

Carrera responded: “Not necessarily. We do not limit our recruiting to that. We just list those areas because I think it demonstrates what our talent here is capable of currently.”

Kupperman then gave COSTEP some advice.

“It is really important to make it clear what you want more of. People like us will come here and we will look at your website. One of the ways to really stand out is to say very clearly this is what we are good at, and this is why we want more. And we have the resources for it,” Kupperman said. 

COSTEP CEO Gonzalez then joined the conversation.

“I would like to add a little bit to that. One of the things that’s happening here in the region is, we are really starting to come together as a region. There’s an initiative here in our four-county area, which we call the Rio Grande Valley… the judge in Hidalgo County has the Prosperity Task Force that is inclusive of all the EDOs that are here. And one of the main things on the agenda is to define and target industries as a region that we want to pursue,” Gonzalez said.

“COSTEP, when we first started, we were doing light auto manufacturing, medical devices and then we also targeted aerospace as you saw on the slide. Other EDCs may be targeting something different. Some the food industry, some the beverage industry. So, we want to come together as a region and list the target industries. And that is going to be done very soon, probably within the next month.”

Gonzalez added: “I know there are going to be some meetings in early May just to do that. To define exactly what we want to target as a region.”

Spamer’s perspective

Joaquin Spamer, leader of the CEO Club, says EDC leaders from across the Valley are on board with plans to improve the branding of the region. He gave this soundbite to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service:

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