Our latest podcast is now live. This one has an international angle and a medical angle — we're taking a look at some surprising plans in Juarez and El Paso to create a cluster of medical device manufacturing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
It's a different look at manufacturing on the border than what dominates much of the news today, with all the questions about how President-elect Trump will follow up on his campaign speeches about building a wall (and having Mexico pay for it) and renegotiating NAFTA.
In the podcast, we meet Julio Chiu, the CEO of El Paso, Texas-based injection molder Seisa Group.
Chiu is a 30-year veteran of manufacturing on the border, starting Seisa in 1983 and building it into a medical device contract manufacturer with 40 injection molding machines, tubing extrusion and mold making.
He heads a cross-border economic development effort to build links between the large manufacturing base in Juarez, where Seisa has most of its manufacturing, and the local medical schools and hospitals on both sides of the border.
Chiu says the border region's efforts are early stage, but he sees chances over time to create the kind of clusters for making medical devices that places like Utah, Minnesota and Boston have developed.
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