The document discusses the BiNational Economic Development Project (BiNED) and how it requires collaboration across multiple public and private sectors to address political, educational, financial, regulatory, and technological issues. United Brownsville is uniquely qualified to unite the diverse interests needed to progress the BiNED initiative. BiNED builds on the Imagine Brownsville plan's vision of manufacturing as central to Brownsville's future development by pursuing actions to make the border area attractive for advanced manufacturing. BiNED aligns with United Brownsville's mission to provide an organizational framework for public-private sector collaboration.

1. THE BiNATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT (BiNED)
Mark Kroll, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
mark.kroll@utrgv.edu
(956) 882-5828

2. How BiNED is collaborative and requires resources and coordination with multiple public
and private sectors?
• For BiNED’s potential to be realized, collaborative efforts across several dimensions will
be required in order to address the political, educational, financial, regulatory, and
technological issues to be confronted.
• United Brownsville, as the originator of the BiNED initiative, is an institution uniquely qualified,
perhaps singularly qualified, to unite the diverse interests in the community that must be
represented for BiNED to progress.

3. How does the initiative align with the Imagine Brownsville Plan?
• The original “Imagine Brownsville” effort concluded manufacturing should be a central
element of Brownsville’s future development.
• The BiNED initiative builds on that vision by pursuing those courses of action that will make
our border area a highly attractive alternative for locating advanced manufacturing
operations.
• BiNED in a very obvious way relates to three of the five industrial clusters identified in the
Imagine Brownsville report: heavy manufacturing, light manufacturing, and logistics
• Manufacturers today wish to locate where they can be highly responsive to markets,
supported by an appropriately-skilled workforce, appropriate infrastructure, and a
relatively low-cost operating environment.
• Given our location and available infrastructure, we can offer manufacturers a very
attractive alternative in terms of logistics, accessing North American and international
markets.

4. Describe how the initiative aligns with the United Brownsville mission?
The mission states “To provide the organizational framework for the sustainable
collaboration of the public and private sector…” The BiNED initiative will call upon
all of Brownsville’s collaborative capacities to realize its potential. United Brownsville
is uniquely qualified to lead in this effort.