Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez / Texas Border Business
COSTEP, the Council for South Texas Economic Progress, and the National Chamber of the Transformation Industry (CANACINTRA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 29, 2025, at CANACINTRA’s national headquarters in Mexico City.
The agreement was formalized by Adam González, CEO of COSTEP, and Esperanza Ortega, President of CANACINTRA**, during a ceremony underscoring the growing partnership between Mexico’s manufacturing sector and Rio South Texas’s economic development efforts.
According to the joint statement, the alliance aims to “attract investment and strengthen supply chains between Rio South Texas and Northern Mexico, facilitating the entry of Mexican companies into the U.S. market and promoting joint competitiveness initiatives.” The MoU also includes commitments to “supplier development programs and workforce training to support the binational manufacturing sector.”
Ortega described the agreement as “a step forward in creating stronger, more resilient industrial cooperation between our two regions.” González emphasized that “Rio South Texas and Northern Mexico share production, logistics, and talent. Integrating these strengths gives us an edge in a globally competitive environment.”
The MoUs are designed to establish a mutually beneficial strategic collaboration between COSTEP and leading business and industrial organizations in Mexico, with the purpose of promoting the Rio South Texas Region as a competitive destination for investment, business expansion, and supply chain integration. This collaboration seeks to increase visibility of the region’s geographic, productive, and logistical advantages, including cities such as Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen, Edinburg, Pharr, Mission, Weslaco, Donna, and Laredo, while highlighting their manufacturing capacity, international trade infrastructure, and direct links to the industrial ecosystem of Tamaulipas.
Additionally, the partnership supports industrial matchmaking and supplier development, enabling companies in Mexico to identify new opportunities for sourcing, expansion, and investment—generating economic growth and job creation on both sides of the border. As part of this effort, COSTEP is developing a Regional Industrial Data System, a comprehensive platform documenting what is produced in the region, by whom, and at what scale, to support investment promotion, supply chain integration, and strategic planning across participating organizations.
Through this collaboration with CANACINTRA, COSTEP reinforces its mission of building bridges between the private sectors of both nations—transforming regional proximity into a genuine platform for global competitiveness and shared prosperity.
