Elizabeth Suarez, president of McAllen Economic Development Corporation, and Gilberto Salinas, president of Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, spoke at the State of the Regional Workforce Conference on South Padre Island. Their session covered economic development in the Rio Grande Valley.
Salinas spoke for more than 20 minutes about tens of billions of dollars in investment coming to the Brownsville area. Suarez followed and spoke for more than 10 minutes about tens of millions of dollars in investment coming to McAllen. As her slides were loading, Suarez joked that next time she would like to go before Salinas.
Jaime Longoria, executive director of Hidalgo County's Community Service Agency, said he was impressed by the Port of Brownsville and the LNG project there. Daniel Rivera, executive director of Elsa Economic Development Corporation, said local leaders in Elsa need to learn more about projects such as the Saronic Technologies shipyard at the port. The conference was co-hosted by Workforce Solutions Lower Rio Grande Valley and Workforce Solutions Cameron.