SE Valley Times

It was a little after 9 a.m. last Friday when Irasema Coronado, the director of Arizona State University’s School of Transborder Studies, began her remarks.

Nearly 100 people had gathered at Thunderbird School of Global Management for the Arizona-Mexico Forum, where academic and industry leaders from both sides of the border examined ways to boost cross-border collaborations.

There were five panel discussions: Nearshoring; water and environmental issues; energy; investment and infrastructure; and workforce development and labor mobility.

For Coronado, the discussion was personal. She talked about growing up in Nogales, Arizona, and how her father was the Holsum bread distributor for Santa Cruz County. Nearly every day, she said, her family would cross the border to provide hot dog and hamburger buns to businesses.

“I remember the immigration inspector greeting my mother and saying, 'Mrs. Coronado, other than your six children, what are you bringing from Mexico today?’” Coronado said. “We would cross the border several times a day. It was very common back then.”

Coronado lamented that people today don’t have the same experience she had as a child and hoped that the forum would lead to more collaboration between Arizona and Mexico.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, speaking before Coronado, emphasized that collaboration is more important than ever given Arizona is one of the largest recipients of CHIPS funding and is at the “forefront of the American manufacturing resurgence, namely in advanced package and semiconductor manufacturing.”

“So many aspects of our cross-border region are intertwined,” Hobbs said. “This is such an area of important partnership for both our countries and this region. Our geographic proximity provides seamless access to manufacturing hubs and reducing costs, and our decades of collaboration have created efficient production and distribution pathways."

“These areas are a gateway to a brighter future for all of us, and our partnership with Mexico is critical to this as well.”

The first panel examined nearshoring possibilities and challenges—a business strategy involving moving some or all supply chain operations closer to main markets.

Thomas Maynard, senior vice president of business development for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, identified three critical components for nearshoring: workforce development, infrastructure, and bridging cultural differences.

“As an example,” Maynard said,“you could have an engineer and a non-engineer talking to each other in the same language, but they're still talking over each other.”

Veronica Villena from W.P. Carey School of Business stressed sustainability in nearshoring practices.

“We want more business from Mexico here in Arizona,” Villena said.“but I wonder whether this increased capacity will negatively impact the environment... we need everybody to talk about sustainable supply chains.”

Roberto Velasco delivered the keynote address at Friday's forum on water issues led by Sarah Porter from ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. Porter asked panelists about primary challenges in building Arizona-Mexico collaborations.

Luis Antonio Rascon from International Boundary & Water Commission cited increasing demand along with decreasing supply as major obstacles.

“On top of all that,” Francisco Lara-Valencia added,“we have all the uncertainty of climate change... we need ways to address those challenges.”

Porter summarized:

“There’s a people element to this problem. It’s not all pipes and pumps.”

Abraham Zamora from Mexican Energy Association advocated regional approaches to shared energy overcoming regulatory differences between Mexico (federal) versus U.S.(national/state).

“I believe we have opportunities for more integration... but we need regional views benefiting both countries,” he said.“We must see it as one policy in energy sector.”

Kenneth Ulrich highlighted public education on environmental disturbances caused by building pipelines/power plants:

“People need knowing where their energy comes from... broad discussions should include state/federal governments/stakeholders/communities/customers convincing public there's necessity here.”