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Executive Director’s Message This month’s newsletter is being published a little bit late this month, due to June having been a whirlwind month. In the midst of organizing and participating in the NAFTA Institute, all of us have been assisting clients and planning for our upcoming events. As you will read below, the 11th annual NAFTA Institute was a rousing success. I want to thank the World Trade Center of El Paso/Juarez, Monterrey Tech Instititute-Juarez Campus and all of our sponsors and participants for their help in putting together this event. A special thanks goes to Juan Carlos Alonso and Carlos Lomeli of Juarez's Economic Development Department, and Raul Ruiz of COPARMEX-Juarez, who worked so diligently to help us put together the business matchmaking sessions. June 30th marked the end of our fiscal year -and what a year it’s been. I want to thank all of our clients and partners who have participated and believed in our program. The IBA is truly reaching its stride in developing trade opportunities for New Mexican companies. The IBA’s differentiation niche of providing services to foreign companies interested in entering the U.S. has helped us bring several companies from Mexico, which have established operations in New Mexico. This willingness to assist foreign companies has allowed us to bring opportunities to New Mexico that previously didn’t exist. As you will see in this newsletter we have a slew of trade events planned this summer and throughout the rest of the year. Please let us know if you are interested in participating in these events, and if we can help you with your international needs. NAFTA Institute Proclaimed a Success: The International Business Accelerator, the World Trade Center of El Paso/Juarez and Monterrey Tech Institute-Juarez Campus joined together to co-host the 11th annual NAFTA Institute II International Business Conference, which was held on June 8 to 10, 2005 in Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. The sponsors of the event included the State of New Mexico, the City of Juarez, the City of Albuquerque, Honda Corporation, the Silver City-Grant County Economic Development Corporation, as well as a slew of private companies. The conference brought together experts from the U.S., Canada and Mexico to discuss a wide range of trade topics. Conference participants listened to a variety of “how to” presentations on business topics including:
Approximately 250 people from New Mexico, west Texas and northern Chihuahua attended this conference, which was specifically targeted at small businesses. More than 100 businesspeople representing companies from New Mexico and the El Paso region traveled to Juarez to attend matchmaking sessions that were arranged by the conference organizers, the City of Juarez and COPARMEX Juarez. Several companies made valuable business contacts, and are currently negotiating to do business with counterparts in the border region. Stated Rick Carley, President of Auto Brite, an Albuquerque-based company of auto accessories that participated in the conference, “Smaller companies such as ours find it difficult to enter a foreign market due to lack of knowledge of the foreign country, its rules and the business environment. A conference such as this helps neutralize all these unknowns and gets us closer to the point of doing business.” Participating in the inauguration and the conference were Hector Valles, Secretary of Economic Development and Tourism-State of Chihuahua; Rick Homans, Secretary of Economic Development-State of New Mexico; Miguel Angel Calderon-Municipio de Juarez; Consul Roberto Lujan, Mexican Consulate-El Paso, Consul Donna Blair, U.S. Consulate in Juarez; Consul Robert Langlois, Canadian Consulate in Monterrey; Carlos Manuel Salas, Sub-delegate-Secretariat of the Economy; Teofilo Ugalde, Director of Personnel-Monterrey Tech Institute-Juarez; John Counts, President, Western New Mexico University; Roy Miller, Executive Director- New Mexico Small Business Development Center Network; Jerry Pacheco, Executive Director, International Business Accelerator; and Gilberto Arias, President, World Trade Center El Paso/ Juárez
COPARMEX-Juarez Trade Mission to Santa Teresa and Las Cruces On August 2, 2005, the IBA will bring a trade delegation of 15 COPARMEX-Juarez members and associates for a visit to Santa Teresa and Las Cruces, New Mexico. COPARMEX is a premier business organization in Mexico that promotes business and commerce. The organization functions similar to how a Chamber of Commerce does in the U.S. The IBA will be presenting an overview on doing business in New Mexico and some of the trade opportunities that exist within our state for these businesspeople. They will take a tour of the Santa Teresa region before proceeding north to Las Cruces, where COPARMEX will be the featured guest and speaker at the August 2, 2005 Industrial Development-Business on the Border Committee monthly luncheon. The delegation will then meet with various Las Cruces-based organizations to discuss trade opportunities. If you are interested in meeting the members of COPARMEX-Juarez, please contact the IBA at 505-589-2200 or email us at info@nmiba.com. Trade Mission of Chihuahua City Businesses to Albuquerque The IBA is working with the City of Albuquerque’s Office of International Trade, the City of Chihuahua, and COPARMEX-Chihuahua to bring a trade mission of between 15 to 20 Chihuahua City-based companies to Albuquerque. The target date is the second week of August, 2005 – the specific date will be determined shortly. The objective of the trade mission is to put buyers/sellers from the two cities in direct contact with each other in order to foster trade opportunities between New Mexico and Chihuahua. Currently, all of the partners in this endeavor are working to select companies and specific industrial sectors for the trade mission. An agenda with business-to-business sessions and site visits also is being created. More specific information on this trade mission will be available in the near future. If you are a New Mexico-based or Chihuahua City-based company interested in participating in this August mission, please contact the IBA at 505-589-2200 or email us at info@nmiba.com.
Quicktruss, Inc. is spearheaded by two brothers, Dave Davis and Shane Davis who formed this company in Farmington, New Mexico several years ago. With the Davis’s combined knowledge of painting and coating, they recognized a market need for paint tools that would improve the efficiency of painting. They quickly realized the strong market potential for their ideas, and got their start by working with the University of New Mexico’s Enterprise Center. They subsequently developed paint supply products through New Mexico State University and Sandia National Labs, and are now ready to expand into a larger production and distribution facility. Today, Quicktruss holds several patents on their paint tools, each of which comes with multiple skews that are widely used by painters throughout the nation. In fact, they currently distribute to over 300 customers in the U.S., including nationwide sales with Sherwin Williams, the leading industrial and residential paint retailer in America. With their continuous product development, the Davis’s approached the International Business Accelerator to assess the opportunities of doing business in Mexico. The IBA was asked to help identify new distribution channels in Mexico, and Quicktruss was invited to participate in the NAFTA Institute II International Business Conference earlier this month. While at the conference, the IBA facilitated matchmaking sessions in which Shane Davis and Brian Sutton had the opportunity of meeting seven potential business partners. The IBA is currently assisting Quicktruss target the largest paint and coating retailer in Mexico. Shane Davis, President of Quicktruss, states that, “ he is excited to work with the IBA and pursue production and distribution opportunities in Mexico.”
For more information please contact the IBA by phone at (505) 589-2200 or by email at info@nmiba.com. |
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