Laredo's competitive advantages stand out internationally

In the last two years, investments of more than 230 million dollars have been reported in Laredo, Texas, to boost industrial activity, an item that stands out in commercial exchanges between Mexico and the United States, but there are also other economic efforts aimed at education, development and training of the labor force, transportation, infrastructure, logistics networks, incentives, among other aspects, which consolidate the region with strong competitive advantages.

The director of Economic Development in the city , Miriam Castillo, explained to Mexico Industry that with the promotion of resources it has been possible to attract new investments, consolidate existing companies and diversify economic activities in other areas beyond the maquiladora industry. . 

One of the examples is the logistics sector, which stands out with more than 650 transport companies, 250 customs agencies and around 130 agents in the United States, through four international bridges, two of them exclusively for trade. 

“The combination of all these elements makes Laredo a very competitive city, which leads the commercial exchange lists; Between Mexico and the United States we are the number one port and also in America, which is why we have the permanent commitment to continue investing in industry, business, technology, education and infrastructure that allows us to further streamline processes in integral aspects that are part of quality of life," he said.

Among recent investments, he highlighted incentives for the generation of new professionals, support for small businesses, residential areas, highways, transportation systems, expansion to international roads, in addition to planning to build a new connection bridge to Mexico.

To achieve the objectives of promoting economic development and the consolidation of new industries , one of the aspects that he considered as a basis is to motivate the economically active population to obtain more knowledge and professional tools. 

“The investment made for the development of the workforce is very important, these efforts are reflected in the generation of new professionals, for example, in 2022 we had around 8,000, with which we respond to the needs of the industry ; In addition, there are the expansion projects for international bridges, railway crossings and, of course, the new international bridge that is being planned to facilitate logistics processes”.

Given the presence of solid logistics networks, Laredo is characterized by having agile import and export processes, through the international bridges The World Trade International Bridge and Bridge Colombia-Solidaridad and railways that, together, receive more than 40% of the commercial exchange between Mexico and the United States transits, with auto parts and vehicles as the main type of merchandise. 

But Laredo's commercial participation exceeds these borders and reaches Canada by land, explained Castillo, indicating that a study was recently carried out to monitor the transit and activity of cargo units that cross the three countries to deliver merchandise with a GPS system .

The results showed that all this transit was completed in about seven days, which brings new competitive advantages to the shipment of food and refrigerated goods, whose supply chain requires faster attention. 

Laredo, Texas also ranks first in the placement of industrial parks in the entire Rio Grande Valley , due to the facilities offered for cross-border trade. In this regard, Castillo emphasized the relationship maintained with the government of Nuevo Laredo to take advantage of all economic opportunities and keep the infrastructure constantly expanding, as well as the availability of land. 

Collaboration with Mexico has made it possible to diversify industries and economic activities, which is why new records are set in exchange every year. “In this city of Laredo we make sure that investors are successful, we attract the necessary funds to push each project forward, the economic development in the city is positive and we know that with nearshoring, which has already had an impact on both sides of the border, we will have even better views."