Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo González
COSTEP, The Council for South Texas Economic Progress, hosted the executive council meeting of INDEX Nacional & their state delegations in the Rio South Texas region, bringing together national and state manufacturing leaders from Mexico to promote cross-border collaboration and investment.
Adam Gonzalez, CEO of COSTEP, said the organization invited INDEX Nacional and 18 of its state delegations to visit the region. “We extended an invitation to Index National and also the 18 state delegations for Index in Mexico… to come and visit the real South Texas region and see how we can collaborate in the future on creating more synergy for manufacturing on both sides of the border,” Gonzalez said.
The delegation included Humberto Martinez Cantu, President of INDEX Nacional; Alfonso Valdes, Secretary, INDEX Nacional; Jael Duran, Director, INDEX Nacional; Felipe A Villarreal, President, INDEX Nuevo Leon; Alfredo Guajardo Jimenez, President, INDEX Reynosa; Ángel Lopez, President, INDEX Yucatan; Salvador Maese, President, INDEX Mexicali; Enrique Moran, President, INDEX Nuevo Laredo; Jose Roberto Ruiz, President, INDEX Metropolitana; and Joshua Rubin, Advisor, INDEX Nogales.
Gonzalez said a central goal was to attract specific industries. “Primarily, we wanted to attrack manufacturing, light manufacturing, high tech manufacturing into the region for ourselves,” he said.
The two-day program included presentations from COSTEP, INDEX leaders, the Texas Economic Development Corporation, and representatives from the Texas Governor’s Office. Panels featured local Economic Development Corporations and commercial brokers. The agenda also included visits to Cameron County, where the delegation heard from local EDCs and port representatives.
Gonzalez described the Rio South Texas region as an integrated binational manufacturing platform. “The manufacturing industry of the United States and Mexico no longer competes with each other. Today it grows and strengthens as a single productive platform,” he said.
Humberto Martinez Cantu said the meeting marked the first time the INDEX Nacional executive committee and board of directors convened outside Mexico. “…today we are holding the first executive committee meeting, which we just concluded, and the board of directors meeting outside of Mexico. And I am very pleased that it has taken place in this state, particularly in Texas…,” he said.
State officials emphasized Texas’ business climate and economic scale. Aaron Demerson referenced the state’s rankings, saying, “…we like to say in Texas it ain’t bragging if it’s true.” Annie Dennis added, “As Governor Abbott often says, we move at the speed of business,” describing the state’s approach to economic development.
Alma Saldaña Cruz, Assistant Director of Economic Development for COSTEP, outlined regional assets, including a combined population of 3.9 million, 143 industrial parks, 20 border crossings, 9 airports, 3 seaports, and the SpaceX Starbase facility. She also cited state-level incentive programs such as the JETI Act — the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for Texas Act, known in Spanish as “Ley JETI” — which provides financial incentives to attract and expand semiconductor and advanced technology manufacturing projects in Texas, as well as the Texas Enterprise Fund, a broader deal-closing program designed to support large-scale capital investment and job creation across multiple industries.
Throughout the event, speakers framed the U.S.–Mexico border as a shared economic platform. Saldaña Cruz said, “It is one region, two countries, one future — a binational region with a single purpose: shared progress.”
Gonzalez said the objective was long-term investment and industry growth. “What we want is for Index to become more familiar with our part of the region and create those relationships with the economic development organization so that we can help attract more investment, more industry to this region,” he said.
The meeting, organized by COSTEP in coordination with INDEX Nacional, positioned the Rio South Texas region as a strategic hub for supply chain integration, nearshoring expansion, and binational manufacturing competitiveness.
