Thread: Mexican plant south of Santa Teresa port will employ 20,000

Mexican plant just south of Santa Teresa port will employ 20,000, officials say
Associated Press
Article Launched: 07/21/2008 10:05:57 AM MDT


LAS CRUCES - A Taiwanese electronics manufacturing plant just south of the Mexican border could be a major catalyst for economic growth in southern New Mexico, state officials say.
Construction began this past week in San Jeronimo on the first phase of the sprawling complex, that, when completed in three to four years, will employ 20,000 people, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Saturday.

Foxconn, the trade name for Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, is an electronics manufacturing giant that makes products for Apple, Nokia, Dell and Sony, and more cell phones than any other firm in the world.

The project on a 440-acre site abutting the New Mexico border southwest of the Santa Teresa port of entry marks the first industrial development in the San Jeronimo area, much of which is owned by Mexican businessman Eloy Vallina.

New Mexico authorities have long expected, and hoped, that manufacturers would put roots in the undeveloped area.

Shipping assembled products from San Jeronimo allow manufacturers to take advantage of short wait times at the Santa Teresa port of entry, which links Interstate 10 via a four-lane highway.

In that scenario, maquiladoras, or manufacturing plants, south of Santa Teresa would in turn attract suppliers to set up shop in industrial parks in southern Dona Ana County, generating jobs and spurring commercial and residential development.

"We were expecting that for a long time, but we never expected it

on the magnitude that (Foxconn) is," said Jaime Campos, executive director of the New Mexico Border Authority. "We were expecting a home run, but it's a grand slam."
The presence of the mammoth Foxconn complex within a stone's throw of the port of entry will finally give New Mexico a crucial geographic advantage over El Paso in recruiting maquiladora suppliers to Santa Teresa, said Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the Santa Teresa-based International Business Accelerator, a contractor for the state's Economic Development Department.

The maquiladora is billed as the largest in Mexico. When complete, it will house more than 3 million square feet of industrial space, said Francisco Uranga, Foxconn's corporate vice president for Latin America and formerly the Chihuahua state secretary for industrial development.

Currently, the largest maquiladora is the 1.8 million-square-foot Electrolux facility in Ciudad, Juarez, where about 3,200 workers are employed, said Manuel Ochoa, vice president for binational development for the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp.

"It's a big, big investment, a mega-industrial park, and they will be the first one located on the west side" of Ciudad Juarez," he said.
Great news , 20,000 less illegals .....

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_9948810

Illegals will of course stay out-of-America.