TREO to be international one-stop shop
Published on Friday, March 30, 2007
Inside Tucson Business
To make it easier to do business here, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. (TREO) will become a one-stop center coordinating international development.
Joe Snell, president and CEO of TREO, made the announcement March 28 as part of the unveiling of a regional economic blueprint at the Fox Tucson Theatre.
He said the international effort will include:
• Coordination of all local efforts of both public and private entities. “It seems like a little thing,” he said but a delegation from Mexico would find itself making inquiries of TREO, the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau and the city “and then we’d go to a reception someplace and realize we were all hosting the same delegation. This will help us coordinate those efforts and end duplication.”
• Take charge of the inland port, a proposal researched last year for the Pima Association of Governments. Snell said the details of how the port effort would come together are yet to be worked out but he said the basic infrastructure is here waiting to be tapped: rail, highways, intermodal freight, an international airport and the critical mass from the transportation logistics industry. In making the announcement last week, Snell stepped back from the microphone and his scripted presentation, and called the potential for the inland port “huge.”
• A coordinated effort for direct foreign investment in Arizona through Arizona Global Network, a cooperative statewide effort formed last year among the state’s other major economic development organizations: Arizona Department of Commerce, Greater Flagstaff Economic Council, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. and TREO. He said the network is already targeting and working with industries in Japan and Europe.
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