Tamaulipas and Texas Boost Industrial Activity

Economic cooperation between northern Tamaulipas and southern Texas has become a key factor in positioning the state among the regions with the highest industrial growth nationwide.

“Manufacturing has existed in that area since 1960—especially the automotive industry—and we have a very large presence there, but we’ve never promoted it,” said Adam González, executive director of the Council for the Economic Development of South Texas (COSTEP).

“Our greatest export is talent; that talent is leaving us—they’re getting an education here or going elsewhere to get an education, and they don’t come back because we don’t have the necessary high-tech manufacturing companies to retain them,” he said.

Consequently, five years ago, Costep decided to promote the region as a hub for advanced manufacturing. The region has traditionally relied on retail and ecotourism; however, there is a deliberate strategy to transition toward sectors with higher value added, he added

In the area, they operate under “the twin-plant concept, where the part of the plant that requires more labor is located on the Tamaulipas side, and the logistics, warehousing, and distribution facilities can be located on the South Texas side. It is the same company with a binational structure.”

“The border area between Tamaulipas and Texas is ‘a region unlike any other; we are neither the interior of Mexico nor the interior of the United States. We have a region right next door where more than 90 percent of the people on both sides speak Spanish; they also speak English, and then there’s a third language we call Spanglish,’ he said.”

González described a social fabric in which residents cross the border as a matter of course to study, work, or access services—a phenomenon that “has existed for hundreds of years. Now the plan is to put it into action to bring in more high-tech manufacturing to create jobs for our residents in South Texas and northern Tamaulipas.”