MCALLEN, Texas - Rio Grande Valley businessman Joaquin Spamer has been invited to speak at SelectUSA’s highest profile event of the year - the SelectUSA Investment Summit.
SelectUSA is a federal government program that encourages foreign investment in the United States. It's part of the International Trade Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The SelectUSA Investment Summit takes place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor, Maryland from May 11-14, 2025.
“This is the most important event for promoting the US worldwide and I am honored to have been invited to speak. The SelectUSA Investment Summit draws anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 visitors,” Spamer said.
Asked why he had been invited, Spamer said: “I think they want to hear from someone who has grown a business that operates on both sides of the border. They want to hear how well we have been able to put together a binational company.”
That company is Commodities Integrated Logistics, otherwise known as CIL. Founded by Spamer in Hidalgo in 1992, CIL offers integrated logistics services along the Mexico-U.S. border, including the import, export, warehousing, distribution and transportation of industrial, commercial and perishable products.
Spamer said he has yet to write his speech for the event, but it will definitely include promoting the RioPlex region. The region encompasses the Rio Grande Valley and northern Tamaulipas. He said he did this also at SelectUSA’s recent conference in Mexico City.
“(In Mexico City I told them) that we are the best place to do business. I think RioPlex is the best region in the state of Texas. And I think that the state of Texas is the best state in the union,” Spamer told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service in an exclusive video interview.
“I think that everybody sees our way. Being at the border, I think is a unique advantage over the rest of the state. Being here, having SpaceX in the region, having LNG, we're pushing what we call the RioPlex Industrial Revolution, and I think it's moving forward.”
The RioPlex brand has been developed by CEOs in the private sector, with encouragement from Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez. It plans to market the region around the globe.
Spamer said that since the concept of RioPlex started last year, many economic development organizations in the Valley have “upped their game.”
He said: “Competition is good. I don't know if you have seen it, but ever since we started with RioPlex… now everybody's working, my friend, everybody's doing something. If they were doing one event a month, now they're doing two or three events a month. And that’s just great.”
Spamer said what the Valley needs is for everybody to do their share.
“I believe that every EDO, every major organization here in the Valley, should be promoting the Valley everywhere. Everybody has different ideas on how to do it, on where to do it. I think we have a better, strategy. But at the end, everything is good for the region.”
Here is the Rio Grande Guardian's video interview with Joaquin Spamer:
