The Greater San Antonio Chamber’s Economic Development Council met on August 10th at Project Cowork Central to discuss ongoing efforts in key industry areas within South Texas and evaluate opportunities to position San Antonio as a leader in the region.
To kick off the conversation, the Chamber’s VP of Cybersecurity and Economic Development, Jeff Fair, mapped out what region constitutes as the “South Texas Triangle,” identified major industries within the region including Manufacturing, Banking, Aerospace, and Healthcare, and gave a summary of emerging opportunities for consideration.
During the conversation, Council members stressed the importance of leveraging existing connections with entities in South Texas while remaining in the lead for representation and advocacy efforts, both at the state and national level. This would include acquiring seats on statewide commissions and advisory councils, drafting legislative priorities for the Chamber’s annual SA to DC trip, and sharing the message that the South Texas region is ripe for growth and what is good for South Texas is good for San Antonio.
Another part of the meeting focused on transportation from passenger and freight transport to advanced air mobility. San Antonio has the potential to spearhead development, not only along the I-35 corridor within the San Antonio – Austin mega region, but also within the South Texas Diamond area between San Antonio, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley, and Laredo.
In Texas, The Port of Laredo is the number one inland port along the US-Mexico border and handled $299 billion worth of trade in 2022, The Port of Corpus Christi is the largest US port by total revenue tonnage and handled $1.59 billion in 2022, and lastly, The Rio Grande Valley’s industries and workforce efforts deeply align with the priorities of our city. San Antonio not only serves as a gateway to the rest of Texas, but as a nexus point along major transportation corridors and can strategically utilize its position to enhance relationships with other South Texas MSAs and increase cross border trade.
In conclusion, the council discussed the need to make it easy for companies to move to and develop within San Antonio and/or the South Texas Diamond. With a wide variety of jurisdictions, the message from the South Texas community must be unified to put its best foot forward. Additionally, we need to ensure local communities are aware of ready to go development sights and areas with existing infrastructure that could make the interconnected region much more competitive.
For more information on the Economic Development Council, please contact Jeff Fair.