On Wednesday February 15, 2012, the Texas A&M International University presented “Back to the Americas: Near-shoring in Mexico vs. Asia.” The event took place in the TAMIU Student Center Ballroom.
The International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker Series consists of a set of lectures given by renowned guests who vary from entrepreneurs, successful business owners, or other individuals involved with the business and trading industries.
This event’s guest speaker was Russell Dillon, Vice-President of consulting firm AlixPartners, who discussed the advantages of near-shoring with countries like Honduras or Mexico, instead of the off-shoring approach in many parts of Asia.
The lecture began with Dr. Tagi Sagafi-nejad, who gave a brief introduction about the speaker and discussed what caught his attention. Dr. Sagafi-nejad also mentioned what made him decide to reach out to Mr. Dillon to speak at TAMIU.
Dr. Sagafi-nejad was interested with the results of the study. He was interested in this because they dealt with the increasing popularity and the advantages that near-shoring could bring to the United States manufacturing industry, particularly because Laredo is a border town.
Dillon started out by shortly explaining the purpose of the two studies conducted by AlixPartners. Dillon commented on how The Global Manufacturing Study “compares the landed cost using the US market or the US consumer as the foundation, the center of gravity and then testing what it costs to get products from various locations throughout the globe and measuring the costs year over year to see how things are changing.” Dillon also explained the firms second study. “It’s executive opinion about the attitudes about doing business in Mexico [and] attitudes about comparing Mexico versus China.”
Dillon clarified that near-shoring was not the same as in-sourcing, and that its main purpose was to bring production closer to the US market instead of having it overseas. Moreover, Dillon expressed that one of the main obstacles in near-shoring in Mexico is the issue of increasing violence. This is evident with the substantial number of companies that remain reluctant to have manufacturing plants in Mexico.
The International Bank of Commerce Keynote Speaker Series will have another presentation on April 11, 2012 dealing with US-Canada relations. For more information on the IBC 2011-2012 Keynote Speaker Series, you can visit: http://freetrade.tamiu.edu/whtc_services/whtc_speaker_series.asp
(Contact Joana Santillana at joana.santillana@dusty.tamiu.edu)