MCALLEN, Texas - RioPlex plans to hold meetings every month across the region to explain to communities what the group is doing to bring in more investment and better paying jobs.
Mario Reyna, RioPlex’s executive director, spoke about the group’s vision, mission statement, core values, and strategic direction at a leadership gathering, held recently at McAllen Country Club.
“We're going to have engagements every month throughout the region to tell people what it is that we're trying to do,” Reyna said. “People have to understand, the community has to understand, what it is that we're trying to do, how we're going to do things that are going to make them better.”
RioPlex is looking to bring longterm prosperity to the region, Reyna explained. The region consists of the Rio Grande Valley and northern Tamaulipas.
“We have to remember why we're doing it. We're doing this because we want to lower the poverty rate in our region, and the only way we know how to do this is by bringing better jobs, bringing more investment. That is going to create better paying jobs.”
Regional unity is key, Reyna explained.
“We want to bring everybody together, private, public, nonprofit, everybody. Everybody that has anything to do with bringing more investment to our community. That's our mission,” Reyna said.
“We cannot move forward if we're not united, and we are going to do everything we can to make sure people understand what it is that we're trying to do. We want to bring more industrial development to this area. So, we're going to be investor-focused. That's what we're trying to do, bring additional investment to the area. We want to promote the region, not internally, but externally.”
Reyna continued: “We want to work with everybody, everybody, including the economic development corporations and the Foreign Trade Zone.”
Foreign Trade Zone No. 12’s president and CEO, Mark E. Garcia, was in the audience. His group has just joined RioPlex.
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