Garcia: McAllen EDC is being 'very strategic' with its visits

MCALLEN, Texas - McAllen Economic Development Corporation is being very strategic on the visits it is making to secure new opportunities for the region, the group’s chief operating officer has explained.Ralph Garcia gave a very brief update on MEDC’s work at their quarterly stakeholders committee meeting on June 18.“We have some projects on the Mexico side, but the majority are US-side projects,” Garcia said. “We continue to see new leads developing, and then also, as we're doing some of our visits, we're being very strategic on our visits that we're doing with companies that are existing in the market, to identify opportunities, and even particular projects they can be working on internally that we can try and attract to the region. So we're working very aggressively with that.”This strategy worked well with Valeo. The French high-tech auto parts manufacturer has a plant in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. When it developed plans to build a $225 million plant in the United States, MEDC worked hard to ensure they landed the new project.The two guest speakers at the stakeholders committee meeting were Juan Olaguibel, assistant city manager and superintendent of bridges for the City of McAllen and Jorge Torres, president of Interlink Trade Services. Olaguibel spoke largely about developments at Anzalduas International Bridge and Torres spoke largely about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Because their presentations went long, with numerous questions asked by stakeholders, Garcia kept his report short.Here is an audio recording of the report.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.