WESLACO, TEXAS - The economic development department of Hidalgo County recently held a meeting at UT-Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Innovation & Commercialization in Weslaco, Texas.
Randy Perez, who heads the department, invited economic development organizations from across the Rio Grande Valley. Many attended.
Among the speakers were Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, Nestor Lopez, an economic development analyst with Texas Workforce Commission, Ron Garza, associate vice president for workforce and economic development for UTRGV, Julian Alvarez, director of business development for Lone Star National Bank, and Gilberto Salinas, president and CEO of Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation.
In his remarks, Judge discussed the importance of regional collaboration.
“We all want to bring investment to this but how to best do that? It all starts with building a relationship with one another, feeling comfortable with one another. And I told the group that I thought we really had a perfect storm of the right people at the right time doing the right thing,” Cortez told the RGG Business Journal, at the conclusion of the meeting.
It was put to Cortez that the highlight of the forum was a presentation by GBEDC’s Salinas. One of his slides showed around 25,000 new jobs coming to the region, along with investment in the billions.
“It was really exciting for him to reveal the number of projects that Cameron County and Bradford are working with. Is really exciting and that's why we need to combine forces. You need to find a workforce. Take Space X. The information that I have says that the city with the largest number of employees for SpaceX is Brownsville. Guess who is next? The second largest city for SpaceX employees is Mission, Texas. That is a pretty unbelievable statistic. So, I think it's great that we are collaborating with one another. We're willing to work with one another. I think it's going to mean much more success for us doing that.”
Cortez said he was pleased to hear Salinas say he needed help finding workers for the big projects in the pipeline.
“We’re all starting to learn that that's what's good for my neighbor is good for me. We're starting to see that. So, personally, I am very, very excited about that, because I know that the best way to be successful is for us to think regionally and work regionally. Then, I think we'll be much successful.”
Here is a video recording of the RGG Business Journal’s exclusive interview with Judge Cortez:
