Congressman Beto O’rourke once said “when we fail to define the border, we allow others to define the border for us.”

The maquiladora industry has been our catalyst and changed the face of Matamoros and the region driving out the economic growth for the last 50 years.

In 1966 the Mexican Federal Government created the maquiladora program with 4 big objectives:

•Generate new jobs•Transfer technology•Economic impact•Talent development

AFTER 50 YEARS THIS IS THE CURRENT PICTURE:

Employment

• 117 companies.

• Directly employ over 75,000 people in

Matamoros.

• Indirectly employ 22,000 people in

Matamoros.

• 97,000 Jobs out of 114,000 formal jobs in

Matamoros.

• This is, 85% of the jobs in Matamoros are

generated by the Maquiladora Industry.

Transfer of TechnologyMatamoros is an advanced manufacturing center with high class manufacturing processes.

The main strength of the city is the auto-part industry closely followed by the electronics and heavy metal industries.

Economic impact• In 2015 the industry paid 550+ millions of

dollars in salaries.

• More than 350 millions of dollars were spent by the industry on goods and services.

• 60+ millions of dollars paid on Social Security for the workers of the industry.

• 500+ millions of dollars spent on domestic raw materials.

• Total exports in 2015 was 8 billion of dollars into Brownsville, Tx.

Fuente: INEGI

Talent Development

After 50 years of operation, the maquiladora industry has built a well defined working philosophy and has developed human-capital intensive, high-value-added intellectual capital.

Matamoros has highly qualified engineers and technicians top of the line in a global market.

Social Responsibility

Adopt a school“The future of children depends on the present where they live”

Vision: Improve the life of students through a healthy

school environment.

Mission: Repair and maintain in good condition school

facilities and support teachers with to improve the teaching-learning process.

ANTES DESPUÉS

Adopt a school

ANTES

DESPUÉS

Adopt a school

Adopt a school

ANTES

DESPUÉS

Adopt a schoolANTES

DESPUÉS

Charity Funds

Donations

Donations

Cruz Verde

Donations

Children day

More the 2,000 toys for Children

Matamoros BilingualOBJECTIVE

Increase significantly the number of bilingual people in Matamoros.

COMPANIES PARTICIPATING

Global English

Health Activities

1.8 millions of health actions1.8 millions of health actions

Generation 5 suns

Order and cleanness: The Secret to ShineProgram for children using the methodology of the 5's.

Generation 5 suns

Generation 5 suns

Generation 5 suns

What is next?• We all know that a community will be successful if we develop in the short

time capabilities of basic scientific research.

• In the mid time we need a better system for commercializing research, and submitting new patents.

• In the long run if we don’t get together as metro regions, we will not be able to compete in this new world.

• Metro regions are the engines of our economy, the sites of new technological breakthroughs

Having said that

Today we have a huge challenge, we are at the edge of the industrial revolution 4.0 and we need to be smarter and more creative to drive our communities from where we are to a community based on value-creation

In this regard the Matamoros-Brownsville area need a new catalyst

And we found that the milestone for this is fostering an economy driven by innovation, that is really the key to improve the standard of living.

• Where the talent enhancement, the develop of regional R&D capabilities need to be deployed to build our own technological revolution.

• An ambitious goal that will make the Matamoros-Brownsville area a value adding region, encouraging young talents into being more research oriented, and support their creativity.

GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY LAST MARCH 30 OF THE MATAMOROS INNOVATION CENTER

Groundbreaking Ceremony Innovation Center

Groundbreaking ceremony Innovation and Research Center

Index Matamoros

We partnered with Krinova Innovation Center in Kristiansand, Sweden

Right now we have an intern there copying the innovation model.

INNOVATION CENTER

GraduateStudies

Research TechnologicalServices

Robotics/advancedManufacturing

Mechanical Engineering an materials

Training

Evaluation of Materials

Materials Mechatronics/ Automation

Engineering/Advanced

Manufacturing

Metrology/Calibration

Modeling/Simulation

Lab of Engineering, Product Design,

Equipment

Lab. of Material

evaluation

Lab. of automation and Control

Ladies and gentleman, the border is not easy, the border is magic, the border is not united states or Mexico the border is unique and only ourselves that grew and live here understand it and have the responsibility to strive for the betterment of our communities.

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, we are not innovating enough”

Elon Musk

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

ROLANDO GONZÁLEZ BARRÓNPRESIDENT OF INDEX MATAMOROS