Boosting Cross-Border Business – ASMI Interview with Arizona Public Media

Wendy Vittori, president of ASMI, was interviewed, together with Haru Yamasaki, CEO of TechBA Arizona, by Kimberly Craft of Arizona Public Media in Tucson, on April 27, 2011.  We discussed the opportunities that the TechBA program is bringing to Arizona, in the form of fast-growing Mexican technology companies who are interested in partnering with Arizona firms.  The opportunity for Arizona firms is access to unique technology, products and capabilities that can help Arizona firms innovate and get new products to market faster, boosting the competitiveness of the companies and Arizona’s industrial base.

To view the interview with Arizona Public Media, click here.

TechBA companies are entrepreneurial companies that are selected to participate in the program based on their technology and/or product competitiveness for global markets. These companies have developed technology and products in areas such as renewable energy, medical devices, IT and newly-added, food product manufacturing. The goal of the program is to create new, high-value jobs in both countries, as a result of identifying opportunities that can strengthen the competitiveness and growth through cross-border collaboration. Examples are a medical IP (intellectual property) company that can provide a time-to-market advantage, or an IT company, that provides capabilities to help a U.S. company do export business in Latin America more effectively.

TechBA Arizona is a program of FUMEC (United States-Mexico Foundation for Science), which was created in 1992 to promote bi-national collaboration in science and technology in both countries.  The TechBA (Business International Acceleration) program was created in 2004 by the Mexican Ministry of Economy, FUMEC and Aceltec, to bring Mexican technology-based companies to global markets, facilitate their growth and position Mexican firms as world class technology providers.  For more information on TechBA, click here.