cameron county/matamoros - blue - The University of Texas at ...

⇒ CONCLUSIONS
& RECOMMENDATIONS
A key organizing principal of this report has been that the border region in
general and Cameron County and Matamoros in particular is at a crossroads in
terms of business and industry development, education and workforce training,
regional leadership, and maintaining and enhancing an accessible quality of file
for all the region’s inhabitants.
By highlighting select demographics, Section 2 emphasized regional challenges
of high unemployment, birthrate and population growth, and children in poverty
coupled with low per capita income, annual pay, and growth rate in annual pay.
Section 3 reported Cameron County and Matamoros community leaders opinions
on current and future challenges to regional economic development including
the key importance of quality education and workforce training, providing needed
support for entrepreneurs, and the lack of regional and binational cooperation.
Section 4 emphasized the contributions of The University of Texas at
Brownsville/Texas Southmost College; Texas State Technical College; and Tech
Prep Rio Grande Valley are making to meet regional workforce and community
needs for the 21 st Century (despite limited financial resources).
Section 5 presents Cameron County and Matamoros regional and binational
industry assets and challenges as indicated by cluster analysis, wage rates,
worker migration, and focus group discussions.
Three industry clusters are targeted because of their unique growth potential for
the border region:
⇒ Value-added Maquiladoras including state-of-the-art supply chain
management
⇒ Transportation Services and Logistics & Distribution with a focus on border
security
⇒ Health Services and Life Sciences focused on border healthcare challenges
and bioterrorism
Based on these data and analyses, this report concludes with the following four
initiatives that are at the center of the crossroads and which are targeted to
bring academic, business, and government leaders and citizens together to for
enhanced regional and binational prosperity.
1. Regional and binational collaboration on targeted technology-based industry
clusters for accelerated economic development
2. Education, training, and research that is linked to regional and binational
economic development
3. Fostering regional and binational technology, social, and civic
entrepreneurship
4. Developing regional, binational, and global value-added partnerships for
accelerated development of targeted technology-based industry clusters
SECTION 6