By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rio native Jorge Ramon II is the city’s new economic development director.
Del Rio City Council members unanimously confirmed Ramon’s appointment during their regular meeting on April 12.
Ramon succeeds Ori Fernandez, who resigned the position earlier this year to become the assistant economic development director for the city of Ft. Worth.
Council members congratulated Ramon after confirming his appointment.
“I just want to thank you and welcome you to the city. You and I have worked extensively on the Ports-to-Plains feasibility study in 2019, when you represented the state of Coahuila as the undersecretary for economic development. You’re a great resource, and I can’t wait to pick your brain. I invite all of council to get to know him if you haven’t yet,” Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano said.
City Human Resources Director Mario Garcia then formally introduced Ramon to the council.
“Although he really doesn’t need much of an introduction, as he’s pretty well-known to most of you, I believe,” Garcia said.
He noted Ramon is a resident of Del Rio, was born here and attended Del Rio High School.
“Most recently, of course, he was the economic development undersecretary for the state of Coahuila in Saltillo, Coah., Mexico. As part of his duties, he responded to inquiries, proposals, projects received from business owners, developers, financing partners and community-based organizations regarding economic development programs,” Garcia told the council.
“Prior to that, Mr. Ramon was the director of economic development, on two occasions, two times, of the city of Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico, our sister city across the border, and in that position, established annual job fairs, a maquila expo to showcase different products made in the communities of Del Rio and Acuña, as well as designing an image and advertising for Acuña and Del Rio as a region to promote at national and international trade shows,” Garcia added.
Ramon is a graduate of the University of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state in Mexico, where he earned a bachelor’s of business administration in international business.
Garcia also invited Ramon to address the council following the introduction.
Ramon first thanked the city and the council for the opportunity and congratulated the mayor for proclaiming Autism Awareness Month earlier in the meeting. He noted he and his wife have a son with autism, adding that he and his wife have worked on a number of autism awareness programs wherever they have lived.
“I’ve been up and down the border from Reynosa to El Paso, and Del Rio is just a wonderful community. It’s known as a great city to live. I’ve been living here for such a long time, and I was born here as well,” Ramon said, noting he has traveled for work to more than 22 countries around the world.
He said with the Mexican governments currently raising tariffs, “we have a great opportunity now to bring in these companies that are across the border or farther in Mexico and try and bring them to our city of Del Rio.”
“I have a lot of wonderful experience, and I plan to work very closely with each one of you, and actually I was working today with public works, and I was very happy with them, because they’re doing an excellent job of opening all these new businesses that are coming,” he added.
Ramon said he also planned to work with the school district to retain some of the young talent in Del Rio by “developing more technical jobs in this area.”
He said Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña currently have the most modern ports of entry in the United States and Mexico, adding the region needs to take advantage of that fact “by bringing more traffic to these ports of entry.”
He said the state of Coahuila is building more roads and other infrastructure like bypass routes to more quickly move traffic through the country and to its northern ports of entry.
“More and more companies are looking to invest on the U.S. side of the border. I’ve seen it, and we’re going to be working very closely with them. I know there’s a lot of incentives that you guys have been authorizing, and I’m happy about that, and we need to continue with those incentives to bring businesses in and promote Del Rio at international trade shows, with developers, with chambers of commerce. I’m very excited, and I look forward to working with all of you,” Ramon said.
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