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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PHARR, TEXAS - Victor Perez, president of Pharr Economic Development Corporation, has welcomed COMCE to the city.

COMCE stands for Consejo Empresarial Mexicano de Comercio Exterior, Inversión y Tecnología (Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology). It is a non-profit organization representing the Mexican private sector in international affairs, particularly focusing on promoting foreign trade, investment, and technology.

COMCE Nacional has announced a new satellite office in Pharr at the Pharr Global Business Hub. Its leaders did so during a two-day tour of the Pharr area. The trip included a visit to the Pharr International Bridge and the Mexican Consulate’s Office in McAllen, along with meetings with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and UT-Rio Grande Valley.

“We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COMCE National a couple of months back. And when we sign an MOU we want to make sure that we follow up. We want to make sure that we continue the collaboration, we continue the communications with those entities or organizations that we have signed an MOU with,” Perez told Ron Whitlock Reports.

“So, today, we're officially designating the Pharr Global Business Hub as a headquarters of COMCE National in the Rio Grande Valley.”

Asked why the MOU is important, Perez said: “Because the Pharr Global Business Park is a key component, a commercial gateway into the US market, into the Texas market.”

Perez said he expects other foreign entities to sign MOUs with Pharr EDC in order to make use of the Pharr Global Business Hub.

“The word is getting around, on both sides of the border, that Pharr is the place to be,” Perez said.

“We are moving forward rapidly. And with the new bridge coming in, we expect more business, more trade, and more investors.”

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The Rio Grande Valley is becoming no different than some of the bigger metros in Texas, says Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation CEO Gilberto Salinas.

“Austin-San Antonio is really one big area, Houston is just a huge monster when it comes to people, numbers and cities around it, DFW? DFW is kind of like McAllen-Brownsville. It's becoming that one huge region, one super region. And it takes a SpaceX coming in and then telling us, a region is 100 miles,” Salinas said.

Salinas made his remarks in an exclusive interview with Ron Whitlock of Ron Whitlock Reports. The interview took place before Salinas made his highly successful presentation at the Cross Border Industrial Opportunities summit in Monterrey.

“Sometimes in Brownsville, we think regional is 20 miles. McAllen, I think it's 30 miles. But it takes a SpaceX, one of the most forward-thinking companies, really in the history the planet, to come and tell us, that no, regional for us is 100 miles,” Salinas told Whitlock.

“And that's just from a supplier network to a labor and talent pool, because they (SpaceX) pull from well outside of 100 miles. And again, it goes to show that the Brownsville-McAllen super metro area is becoming a huge draw.”

Salinas added: “You know, outside of Texas, all eyes are on this place that we call the Rio Grande Valley.”

Asked what the state of industry and the jobs market is currently like Brownsville and Cameron County today, Salinas said:

“The state of jobs and industry is like never before. That's the one thing that I have seen since I've come back, the number of projects that we have in the pipeline, the number of leads, the companies that are opening up here. It’s different from 10 years ago, even from five years ago,” Salinas said.

“And a big fish draws all the big fish… SpaceX, the two LNG plants. There's a refinery plant looking at the Port (of Brownsville), and some other major operations looking at the Port. We have, like, $3 billion in the pipeline just for the Brownsville from the GBIC side. All these companies are coming in as a result of the success of a SpaceX and the LNGs. So those big fish are drawing in other big fish, and that's what's setting us apart from everybody else right now. That level of activity is raising eyebrows across the entire state of Texas.”

Asked if there are any big projects in the works that he can talk about, Salinas said:

“Well, no different than most other EDOs, we are on the cusp of announcing some major projects. We just cannot disclose those yet. But, between our top 10 projects, we're looking at about $3 billion in capital investment. Hopefully we can announce at least one of those here in the next coming weeks.”

Salinas said he likes to call these big projects game changers.

“Those projects that we have are, again, what I like to call game changers, very similar to a SpaceX and the LNGs in the energy sector. To everybody’s somewhat surprise, it is just going to put Brownsville… Brownsville is already on the map because everything that has happened. But those projects are just going to make that dot on the map bigger.

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