BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Dr. Mostafa Malki is a professor at UT-Rio Grande Valley and executive director for business development at America’s Additive Foundry Center for Advanced Manufacturing Innovation and Cyber Systems. He is also the founder of Aaron Economic Consulting.

Malki was a panelist for a discussion titled “Additive Manufacturing and Industrial Reshoring in the RGV.” The discussion, held at the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization, part of RGV StartUp Week.

During his remarks, Malki acknowledged he might offend some people when speaking about the importance of manufacturing over retail.

“Science technology, engineering and mathematics are what create wealth. All the others industries, although important, are not self-sustaining without a very strong industrial base,” Malki said.

“So I understand, and maybe I'm going to offend some people but I'll go ahead and say it. One of the largest employers or industries in the Valley are the school districts. How we fund schools, education, is through property taxes. So somebody has to pay those taxes to be able to have quality education. That somebody has to be manufacturing.”

Malki elaborated on his thought:

“It has to be industries, because they are the one generating value. I don't want to give a lecture on economics, but I'll give you a very short explanation. When you manufacture something, most of the stuff that you manufacture is not going to be sold and consumed locally, it will be exported. So you export the value that you have produced and bring back cash that allows activity in that economy. It allows for a thriving entertainment industry, real estate, schools and so on.”

Malki then contrasted retail with manufacturing.

“I don't want to pick on retail,” he said, explaining that much of the profit created from retail activity leaves the region.

“Only manufacturing does that because it brings money in and takes products out. Other areas (such as retail), they take money out, and that's what you're trying to avoid. So you're bleeding the region in that sense.”

Malki said, economic development officials “cannot just say no, we're not going to do retail, because we still need retail.” But, he said, “we should not really focus on retail.”

Malki continued: “We need to focus on manufacturing and industry, whether it's advanced or traditional manufacturing, because that's what creates wealth in the community. You look at Chicago, you look at L.A., there are very strong manufacturing bases there and that's the reason why they are considered successful, big, thriving communities. It’s because there is wealth being generated there.”

In other parts of his remarks, Malki spoke about additive manufacturing and how the Valley could learn a lot from studying the success of Sweden.

Editor’s Note: Here is an audio recording of everything Dr. Malki said on the Additive Manufacturing and Industrial Reshoring in the RGV panel.

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