MCALLEN, Texas - The Rio Grande Valley Partnership is going to be the official marketing arm of the region, cities and counties have decided.
The announcement will be made at a major economic summit the RGVP is hosting in Edinburg in August. Gov. Greg Abbott is likely to attend this event.
RGVP President Daniel Silva spoke about his group’s willingness to take on the Valley’s marketing efforts in a speech at the recent Futuro RGV “Building a Thriving RGV” Forum. Later at the event he gave an exclusive interview to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service.
“A lot of these entities that we're working with, they have geographical boundaries, or they have governmental boundaries, and we need somebody in the region who transcends those boundaries,” Silva said. “We’ve built the Partnership covering the four counties, Starr, Willacy, Cameron and Hidalgo. We're in a position to be able to address needs that exceed a city limit line ,exceed a county line line.”
Silva continued: “So what the Partnership is going to be doing… the announcement is going to be that the Partnership will take the active role as as the economic development marketing entity for the entire region. And really the goal behind this is to be able to bring all of the partners together. If we need to bring somebody from Brownsville, somebody from Rio Grande City, McAllen, Edinburg, Pharr, Weslaco, Mercedes, Harlingen, to bring them together at the table and to initiate the conversations. But, on the marketing side, they will to be able to put messaging together that's cohesive, that's regional and that we can spread out to the rest of our partners. All of the mayors across the Valley have signed on.”
Silva said the RGVP can say: “This is what we need to talk about. This is the message and this is how we're going to put ourselves at the forefront of all of the regions across the United States.”
Asked if every community is on board with the idea that the RGVP is the overarching entity that can best market the region, Silva said: “Unanimous buy-in. Every single mayor, all the city managers, the EDOs, the economic development organizations, they all understand we need somebody who can, like I said, transcend these geographical boundaries and bring everybody together.”
Silva added: We are not biased. We're not going to be doing lead generation. We’re not going to be going after a specific company and trying to bring them to the region. Every city has economic development corporation and that's their goal. We're going to aid them, we'll help them, but our goal is just to spread the message of the Valley. So it's an outward push, and we'll let the EDCs do the inward pull.”
Editor's Note: The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service will bring readers a more in-depth video interview with RGV Partnership President Daniel Silva in the coming days.
Producing quality journalism is not cheap. The coronavirus has resulted in falling revenues across the newsrooms of the United States. However, The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service is committed to producing quality news reporting on the issues that matter to border residents. The support of our members is vital in ensuring our mission gets fulfilled.
Can we count on your support? If so, click HERE. Thank you!
