The Rio Grande Guardian interviews Rolando Pablos

HARLINGEN, Texas - On his recent visit to the Rio Grande Valley, Rolando Pablos gave advice on how to grow the RioPlex marketing brand.Pablos, a former Texas Secretary of State, wrote the roadmap for the Borderplex Alliance, the regional economic development entity for El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, and Santa Teresa.As a guest of the CEO Group and the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force, Pablos spoke to an audience of VIPs at the Harlingen Convention Center. The CEO Group and the task force wanted to glean best practices from Pablos as they develop RioPlex, a branding initiative to help market the Valley and northern Tamaulipas across the globe.After his speech, Pablos gave an interview to the Rio Grande Guardian. In the interview he spoke about his key takeaway from the meeting, the underlying reason the Texas economy is booming, how the BorderPlex Alliance came about, the state of the El Paso economy, the huge multi-modal facility in Santa Teresa, the importance of advocating in Austin and Washington, D.C., and the advice he had for RioPlex.“Here in the Valley, you have access to the entire world. And so my recommendation is take advantage of it. The sea port, is it in Brownsville? Yes, but it benefits the entire region. And so why not use that as a starting point to reach out to the world. The port here is already doing well. It needs to be supported and it needs to be marketed along with the entire region,” Pablos said.Here is the interview:Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.