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backLATINtalk May, 2012

Mexico: Skills, sites needed for auto plants

The keys to attracting new automotive assembly plants to the Texas-northeast Mexico region are developing a workforce with more manufacturing skills and creating a process to prequalify manufacturing sites.

That was the consensus reached Tuesday during a lunchtime planning session of job-creation professionals and automotive and manufacturing executives from Texas and Mexico, organized by the Bexar County Economic Development Department.

The group met under the auspices of the Texas-Mexico Automotive SuperCluster, organized in 2008 by the Bexar County department, which aims to coordinate investment-seeking efforts between Texas and Mexico's four northeastern states.

After a presentation to Bexar County Commissioners Court, more than 30 people convened for a lunch discussion on ways to attract two new assembly plants to the region by 2015 and five more after that by 2020.

Workforce skills development was judged the region's top priority.

Participants cited Toyota Motor Corp.'s program in San Antonio that seeks trained military personnel leaving the armed services as a good way for Texas manufacturers and potential industrial investors to fill the skills gap.

Texas and the four Mexican states that make up the TMASC — Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila and San Luis Potosí — also could designate organizations that to prequalify manufacturing sites to be presented to automakers as shovel-ready for assembly-plant construction.

Several organizations, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, in Southern U.S. states have prequalified sites with utilities, roads, rail service and other amenities. Southern states recently have won site-selection decisions from Volkswagen and Toyota.

Who could certify the prequalified sites in Texas and how it could happen were left as questions to explore.

Audi and Volvo are looking for North American sites for assembly plants, said David Marquez, Bexar County's economic development executive director.

Audi has selected Mexico and is looking at Saltillo, Monterrey and San Luis Potosí as possible sites, said Jorge Ramon of the Ciudad Acuña Economic Development Department in Mexico. Audi plans to make sport utility models in Mexico for export to Europe.

Volvo is at an early stage in its site-selection process, said Mario Hernandez, San Antonio Economic Development Foundation president.

The region has grown, an updated TMASC report states, to 27 original-equipment plants, up from 20 in 2008, an increase representing investments of $2.64 billion and more than 2,600 jobs.

Source: MySanAntonio.com - GAI

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