Luis Cantú Leaves COBIFER presidency with a Foundation for Binational Growth

For Luis H. Cantú, the significance of handing over COBIFER’s presidency lay in the organization heand its partners had helped build. In an interview during the October 5leadership ceremony, he described eight years of work giving the council a stronger institutional structure and bringing the region’s business organizations together.

“We succeeded in institutionalizing COBIFER,” Cantú said. He credited the participation of other organizations and support from state and municipal governments with helping the council establishits role in regional economic development.

The ceremony recognized his leadership as Rosendo Eduardo Martínez McDonald assumed the presidency. It also brought cooperation agreements with manufacturing and economic development organizations in Mexico and Texas, connecting the leadership transition with the binational work Cantú identified as central to the council.

Bringing organizations into a common effort

Cantú said COBIFER developed from its early plans into a council able to bring business organizations together. In his account, that participation gave the institution greater relevance and helped position it as a binational organization promoting the region’s economy.

He emphasized the contribution of partners rather than presenting progress as an individual accomplishment. Business organizations, the state government, and the municipal government all formed part of the support he described.

That institutional foundation matters to the manufacturing cooperation being pursued through COBIFER, the Consejo Binacional para el Fomento Económico de Reynosa. Companies looking for partners across the border need organizations that can maintain contact, make introductions, and bring different business needs into the same discussion.

Cantú’s interview focused on developing that capacity to convene. The agreements signed during the transition provide a new opportunity to put it towork through relationships reaching beyond Reynosa and the immediate border region.

Extending the manufacturing conversation into Texas

The signing initiative involved INDEX Nacional, represented by President Humberto Martínez Cantú, and INDEX Reynosa, led by Alfredo Guajardo. It also included COSTEP, the Greater Houston Manufacturers Association, the San Antonio Manufacturers Association, and the Tamaulipas Electrical–Electronics Cluster.

Adam Gonzalez represented COSTEP, while Dan Yoxall and Manuel Pasillas brought the perspectives of SAMA and GHMA. CEET president Sergio Arturo Treviño Ayala contributed a focus on electrical and electronics manufacturing and supplier capabilities.

Together, those relationships offer a way for businesses in Texas and Mexico to explore customers, suppliers, and technical cooperation. Their relevance to Cantú’s legacy lies in the ability to bring organizations with different networks into a continuing regional effort.

The cooperation also builds on a shared interest in established companies. In his prepared address, incoming president Martínez McDonald called for helping businesses already operating in Reynosa overcome obstacles and make their next investment. That gives the council’s institutional relationships a role in retaining and expanding the industrial base as well as attracting new companies.

Supporting the next administration

Cantú expressed confidence that Martínez McDonald would take COBIFER further, citing the resources and support available to the incoming president. He also said he intended to continue supporting the organization.

Martínez McDonald, who is rector of the Instituto Internacional de Estudios Superiores, brings an educational perspective to that next stage. His interview emphasized existing cooperation between Reynosa’s schools and manufacturers, while his prepared address linked talent development with business connections and investment.

The transition therefore combines continuity in institutional relationships with new priorities for using them. Cantú’s work, as he described it, helped assemble the organizations around the table; the incoming administration aims to translate those connections into opportunities companies can use.

For the manufacturing communities of Texas and Mexico, that continuity creates a basis for sustained cooperation. Cantú leaves a council whose binational identity he regards as one of its defining strengths, with partners now looking to turn shared relationships into further industrial growth.