Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is moving ahead with his plans to open hospitals in Mexico that cater to US baby boomers.
Slim's business concept might be compared to a maquiladora export factory. A raw product, in this case an ailing US citizen, is imported into Mexico, "put together" and then re-exported back to the home country. Ironically, Slim’s fortune, now estimated to be larger than that of Bill Gates, derives in part from the tycoon's Marlboro cigarette business in Mexico.
In partnership with Grupo Star Medica, Slim's Ideal company intends to open new medical centers in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, and in Los Cabos on the Baja California peninsula. A national hospital chain, Grupo Star Medica is a fast-growing business with expansion plans in Ciudad Juarez and additional Mexican cities. In 2007, Ideal purchased 49 percent of Grupo Star Medica's stock. Specializing in construction and development, Ideal has agreed to help Grupo Star Medica with infrastructure, acquisition and financing.
With its planned medical centers in Puerto Peñasco and Los Cabos, Grupo Star Medica plans to tap into a new market segment of US baby boomers who are buying second homes in Mexico.
Reportedly, sales of vacation homes in Los Cabos and Puerto Peñasco increased 30 percent and 45 percent, respectively, during the last three years. Claudia Velazquez, an analyst for the Softec real estate market analysis firm, said the relative lack of medical services in beach resorts attractive to US vacationers and expatriates is opening up business opportunities for companies like Grupo Star Medica."(Baby boomers) are also choosing Mexico because its health system is much cheaper than in the United States," Velazquez said.
Besides Slim, other Mexico-based entrepreneurs are seriously looking at the growing population of US baby boomers who need healthcare services. Their plan is to get US private insurance companies to pay for medical treatment in Mexico."For a US insurance policy to pay for medical treatment, the treatment has to comply with certain quality control standards, and we are going to participate with products to serve this niche," said Jaime Jimenez, general director for Mexico Trane, another company on the same path as Slim. Of course, it remains to be seen if the expansion of medical services in Mexico to US residents will help lower private insurance premiums in this country.
Sources: Tribuna de la Bahia/Agencia Reforma, February 26, 2008. Article by Karla Ramirez. Biznews.com.mx, July 9, 2007. Ideal.com.mxFrontera NorteSur (FNS)Center for Latin American and Border StudiesNew Mexico State UniversityLas Cruces, New MexicoFNS can be found at http://frontera.nmsu.edu/)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Mexico Builds Hospitals to Lure Medical Tourists From America
By Thomas Black
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- The only way Bridget Flanagan, a 21-year-old college student from Olympia, Washington, could afford the obesity surgery she needed was to go to Mexico. Her health insurance didn't cover the treatment.
Traveling 2,000 miles for gastric banding surgery at Hospital San Jose in Monterrey, Mexico, saved her $6,600, making it affordable. The procedure was a success, allowing five-foot- tall Bridget to drop 45 pounds so far off her peak weight of 275.
Health-care companies and investors see a new market in patients like Flanagan. Tecnologico de Monterrey, the private university that owns San Jose Hospital, plans a $100 million medical center in Monterrey. Grupo Star Medica, the builder of seven Mexican centers in five years, is accelerating an expansion aimed at Americans, funded partly by billionaire Carlos Slim.
``This is a great opportunity not only for Mexico, but also to reduce health costs in the U.S.,'' said Marco Antonio Slim Domit, Carlos Slim's son and chief executive officer of his Mexico City brokerage Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB. The firm took an undisclosed stake in Star Medica, a privately held hospital chain based in Morelia, Michoacan, in southern Mexico.
While Mexican authorities declined to estimate how much the country's health-care industry is expanding to handle medical tourism, companies are building new hospitals, clinics and surgical centers.
Industry Expansion
U.S.-based companies are also investing in Mexico. Christus Health, a nonprofit based in Irving, Texas, owns six hospitals in Mexico after opening one in Reynosa near McAllen, Texas. Dallas-based International Hospital Corp., the operator of three hospitals in Mexico, is building a fourth in the central city of Puebla.
Grupo Empresarial Los Angeles, Mexico's largest private hospital chain, is spending $700 million to build 15 hospitals over the next three years, said Victor Ramirez, the chief operating officer of the company's hospital unit. Oca Hospital, a family-owned company in Monterrey, is building a 200-bed facility there.
``In diverse cities that are attractive to Americans, we can offer hospitals that are very competitive and at a very good price,'' Ramirez said.
Grupo Angeles has a marketing campaign targeting Americans. The goal is for foreigners to make up 20 percent of patients within two years, up from 5 percent now, Ramirez said. At the company's hospital in Tijuana, Americans accounted for 40 percent of the 100,000 patients the facility admitted in 2007, he said.
Medical Spending
Health spending in Mexico in 2005 was about $49 billion, or 6.4 percent of gross domestic product. In the U.S., the world's biggest economy with a population almost three times Mexico's, health-care spending reached $2.2 trillion last year, 16 percent of all goods and services.
The number of private hospital beds in Mexico rose 28 percent to 34,576 in 2005 from 27,015 in 2000, according to the census bureau. Private doctors more than doubled to 55,173 from 21,565 during the same period. Surgery rooms in private hospitals jumped 46 percent to 4,545 in 2005 from 3,115 in 2000.
U.S. employers are prodding insurance companies to lower costs by providing incentives for workers to travel abroad for treatment. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance altogether.
For decades Mexico has attracted U.S. residents looking for cheap, basic health care. Border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas, are dotted with clinics hawking bargain dental braces or discount eye exams and pharmacies that sell prescription medicines over the counter.
Beyond Cut-Rate Care
Medical tourism is expanding beyond cut-rate care, said Arturo Garza, who runs the Mexican unit of Christus Health. Mexican hospitals now perform hip replacements, spinal fusions, knee surgery and angioplasty. The U.S. cost of such procedures encourages people sometimes to forego treatment or leave the country for it, said Peter Maddox, 60, a senior vice president at Christus Health.
A hip replacement in Mexico costs $12,000, compared with $43,000 to $63,000 in the U.S., according to a study by Christus Health published last year. Angioplasty, in which a surgeon uses a tiny balloon to open a blocked coronary artery, costs $10,000 in Mexico, compared with $57,000 to $82,000 at an American hospital.
Heath-Care Boom
Star Medica in September opened a 53-bed facility in Ciudad Juarez and plans others in Tijuana and Mexicali, said Fernando Padilla, medical director for the hospital. The chain will target American patients for elective surgery such as arthroscopy and laparoscopy.
``This is something that will grow very rapidly because it makes sense,'' Garza said.
Christus is putting its seventh Mexican hospital in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, to attract U.S. patients. It's also adding a $100 million heart surgery center to the Monterrey unit where Flanagan had her procedure.
Flanagan, resting in a private room at San Jose Hospital, said the cost for placing a band around her stomach to reduce its size was $10,600 in Monterrey plus $600 for round-trip airfare. She would have spent $17,800 at Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in Everett, Washington, a clinic that specializes in the procedure.
Salaries for American doctors and nurses, often 10 times as much as in emerging-market countries, are the main reason for higher medical costs, said Paul Mango, a Pittsburgh-based partner with McKinsey & Co. who leads the firm's global health- care practice.
Flanagan's Surgery
Flanagan's parents, who have their own law firm, provide health care for the family with a $300-a-month catastrophic insurance policy with LifeWise Health Insurance. The policy carries a $3,500 deductible and excludes benefits for obesity such as gastric banding surgery.
Apart from the cost savings, Flanagan was attracted to the level of care and support in a full-service hospital, which a clinic can't match. She met with four doctors in Monterrey, including chief surgeon Roberto Rumbaut, who explained the procedure in detail. Rumbaut studied under Dr. Franco Favretti, an Italian doctor credited with helping develop laparoscopic gastric banding, and says he has performed the procedure more than 4,300 times.
``The doctors talked to me as long as I wanted,'' said Flanagan, a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia. ``My impression is that the doctors here do things more on a personal basis.''
Mexican Surgeons
Surgeons at San Jose operate on about two foreigners a day, and the hospital has a dedicated customer-service office for them, said Ernesto Dieck, the chief executive officer. More than 90 percent of the doctors at the facility -- which has performed heart transplants -- have worked at U.S. or European hospitals, he said.
``We have the experience,'' Dieck said. ``The borders between Mexico and the U.S. and Canada in terms of medicine will fall over the medium term.''
As Mexico's private hospitals have improved, they've attracted more patients, including wealthy Mexicans who in the past had traveled to Los Angeles, Houston and other U.S. cities for care, Dieck said.
In the race to attract medical tourists, Mexico has lagged behind other developing countries such as India, Thailand, Singapore and Brazil. The Joint Commission, an independent, nonprofit group based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, evaluates and certifies health-care organizations around the world that meet a set of quantifiable standards. The commission determined that 11 hospitals in Singapore met its standards of care, as did nine in Brazil while Mexico has only two: San Jose and Christus Muguerza Alta Especialidad, both in Monterrey.
Advantage: Location
Mexico's advantage is its location, Dieck said. A flight from Chicago to Monterrey, 150 miles south of Laredo, Texas, takes about three hours, compared with more than 20 hours from Chicago to Bangkok.
The cultural differences between Mexico and the U.S. have lessened after more than a decade of lower trade barriers under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The cab ride from Monterrey's airport into town takes travelers past a Marriott hotel, a Carl's Jr. fast-food restaurant and 7-11 convenience stores.
Mexico operates a government-owned health system that provides coverage for all workers who pay taxes and their families. Many companies also pay for treatment at higher quality private hospitals.
Slim's Inbursa is financing Star Medica's expansion in exchange for an option to take an undisclosed stake in the company, Slim Domit said. Inbursa considers Star Medica a financial investment and doesn't plan to operate the hospital chain, he said.
Slim said he would like to see the U.S. government extend its Medicare and Medicaid benefits to U.S. citizens who retire in Mexico. Although U.S. government officials say the idea isn't under consideration, investors like Slim are hopeful.
``It would create a lot of jobs in Mexico,'' Slim said. ``That would be fantastic.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey, Mexico, at tblack@bloomberg.net.
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- The only way Bridget Flanagan, a 21-year-old college student from Olympia, Washington, could afford the obesity surgery she needed was to go to Mexico. Her health insurance didn't cover the treatment.
Traveling 2,000 miles for gastric banding surgery at Hospital San Jose in Monterrey, Mexico, saved her $6,600, making it affordable. The procedure was a success, allowing five-foot- tall Bridget to drop 45 pounds so far off her peak weight of 275.
Health-care companies and investors see a new market in patients like Flanagan. Tecnologico de Monterrey, the private university that owns San Jose Hospital, plans a $100 million medical center in Monterrey. Grupo Star Medica, the builder of seven Mexican centers in five years, is accelerating an expansion aimed at Americans, funded partly by billionaire Carlos Slim.
``This is a great opportunity not only for Mexico, but also to reduce health costs in the U.S.,'' said Marco Antonio Slim Domit, Carlos Slim's son and chief executive officer of his Mexico City brokerage Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB. The firm took an undisclosed stake in Star Medica, a privately held hospital chain based in Morelia, Michoacan, in southern Mexico.
While Mexican authorities declined to estimate how much the country's health-care industry is expanding to handle medical tourism, companies are building new hospitals, clinics and surgical centers.
Industry Expansion
U.S.-based companies are also investing in Mexico. Christus Health, a nonprofit based in Irving, Texas, owns six hospitals in Mexico after opening one in Reynosa near McAllen, Texas. Dallas-based International Hospital Corp., the operator of three hospitals in Mexico, is building a fourth in the central city of Puebla.
Grupo Empresarial Los Angeles, Mexico's largest private hospital chain, is spending $700 million to build 15 hospitals over the next three years, said Victor Ramirez, the chief operating officer of the company's hospital unit. Oca Hospital, a family-owned company in Monterrey, is building a 200-bed facility there.
``In diverse cities that are attractive to Americans, we can offer hospitals that are very competitive and at a very good price,'' Ramirez said.
Grupo Angeles has a marketing campaign targeting Americans. The goal is for foreigners to make up 20 percent of patients within two years, up from 5 percent now, Ramirez said. At the company's hospital in Tijuana, Americans accounted for 40 percent of the 100,000 patients the facility admitted in 2007, he said.
Medical Spending
Health spending in Mexico in 2005 was about $49 billion, or 6.4 percent of gross domestic product. In the U.S., the world's biggest economy with a population almost three times Mexico's, health-care spending reached $2.2 trillion last year, 16 percent of all goods and services.
The number of private hospital beds in Mexico rose 28 percent to 34,576 in 2005 from 27,015 in 2000, according to the census bureau. Private doctors more than doubled to 55,173 from 21,565 during the same period. Surgery rooms in private hospitals jumped 46 percent to 4,545 in 2005 from 3,115 in 2000.
U.S. employers are prodding insurance companies to lower costs by providing incentives for workers to travel abroad for treatment. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance altogether.
For decades Mexico has attracted U.S. residents looking for cheap, basic health care. Border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas, are dotted with clinics hawking bargain dental braces or discount eye exams and pharmacies that sell prescription medicines over the counter.
Beyond Cut-Rate Care
Medical tourism is expanding beyond cut-rate care, said Arturo Garza, who runs the Mexican unit of Christus Health. Mexican hospitals now perform hip replacements, spinal fusions, knee surgery and angioplasty. The U.S. cost of such procedures encourages people sometimes to forego treatment or leave the country for it, said Peter Maddox, 60, a senior vice president at Christus Health.
A hip replacement in Mexico costs $12,000, compared with $43,000 to $63,000 in the U.S., according to a study by Christus Health published last year. Angioplasty, in which a surgeon uses a tiny balloon to open a blocked coronary artery, costs $10,000 in Mexico, compared with $57,000 to $82,000 at an American hospital.
Heath-Care Boom
Star Medica in September opened a 53-bed facility in Ciudad Juarez and plans others in Tijuana and Mexicali, said Fernando Padilla, medical director for the hospital. The chain will target American patients for elective surgery such as arthroscopy and laparoscopy.
``This is something that will grow very rapidly because it makes sense,'' Garza said.
Christus is putting its seventh Mexican hospital in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, to attract U.S. patients. It's also adding a $100 million heart surgery center to the Monterrey unit where Flanagan had her procedure.
Flanagan, resting in a private room at San Jose Hospital, said the cost for placing a band around her stomach to reduce its size was $10,600 in Monterrey plus $600 for round-trip airfare. She would have spent $17,800 at Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in Everett, Washington, a clinic that specializes in the procedure.
Salaries for American doctors and nurses, often 10 times as much as in emerging-market countries, are the main reason for higher medical costs, said Paul Mango, a Pittsburgh-based partner with McKinsey & Co. who leads the firm's global health- care practice.
Flanagan's Surgery
Flanagan's parents, who have their own law firm, provide health care for the family with a $300-a-month catastrophic insurance policy with LifeWise Health Insurance. The policy carries a $3,500 deductible and excludes benefits for obesity such as gastric banding surgery.
Apart from the cost savings, Flanagan was attracted to the level of care and support in a full-service hospital, which a clinic can't match. She met with four doctors in Monterrey, including chief surgeon Roberto Rumbaut, who explained the procedure in detail. Rumbaut studied under Dr. Franco Favretti, an Italian doctor credited with helping develop laparoscopic gastric banding, and says he has performed the procedure more than 4,300 times.
``The doctors talked to me as long as I wanted,'' said Flanagan, a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia. ``My impression is that the doctors here do things more on a personal basis.''
Mexican Surgeons
Surgeons at San Jose operate on about two foreigners a day, and the hospital has a dedicated customer-service office for them, said Ernesto Dieck, the chief executive officer. More than 90 percent of the doctors at the facility -- which has performed heart transplants -- have worked at U.S. or European hospitals, he said.
``We have the experience,'' Dieck said. ``The borders between Mexico and the U.S. and Canada in terms of medicine will fall over the medium term.''
As Mexico's private hospitals have improved, they've attracted more patients, including wealthy Mexicans who in the past had traveled to Los Angeles, Houston and other U.S. cities for care, Dieck said.
In the race to attract medical tourists, Mexico has lagged behind other developing countries such as India, Thailand, Singapore and Brazil. The Joint Commission, an independent, nonprofit group based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, evaluates and certifies health-care organizations around the world that meet a set of quantifiable standards. The commission determined that 11 hospitals in Singapore met its standards of care, as did nine in Brazil while Mexico has only two: San Jose and Christus Muguerza Alta Especialidad, both in Monterrey.
Advantage: Location
Mexico's advantage is its location, Dieck said. A flight from Chicago to Monterrey, 150 miles south of Laredo, Texas, takes about three hours, compared with more than 20 hours from Chicago to Bangkok.
The cultural differences between Mexico and the U.S. have lessened after more than a decade of lower trade barriers under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The cab ride from Monterrey's airport into town takes travelers past a Marriott hotel, a Carl's Jr. fast-food restaurant and 7-11 convenience stores.
Mexico operates a government-owned health system that provides coverage for all workers who pay taxes and their families. Many companies also pay for treatment at higher quality private hospitals.
Slim's Inbursa is financing Star Medica's expansion in exchange for an option to take an undisclosed stake in the company, Slim Domit said. Inbursa considers Star Medica a financial investment and doesn't plan to operate the hospital chain, he said.
Slim said he would like to see the U.S. government extend its Medicare and Medicaid benefits to U.S. citizens who retire in Mexico. Although U.S. government officials say the idea isn't under consideration, investors like Slim are hopeful.
``It would create a lot of jobs in Mexico,'' Slim said. ``That would be fantastic.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey, Mexico, at tblack@bloomberg.net.
Tourism Dips Slightly, City and Merchants Launching New Promotional Efforts
By Hector Aldrete GermanIssue #453
It is used to say in the stock market that "what goes up must come down." Well, Puerto Peñasco's tourism business 'went up' starting in 2007 and then went down by the end of the year. Compared with 2006, there was an increase of 15% to 20%, for an overall total room occupation around 65 to 68%, with the vacation period and the long weekends registering up to 90% occupation of hotels. This gave a positive boost to the our economy, says Conventions and Visitors Office (OCV) Director Rafael Gonzales Valenzuela. He calls these 'respectful' numbers compared with previous years - especially considering the problems affecting the USA economy, since it its that country which generates most of the tourism traffic to the harbor.
Because of the economic situation in our neighboring country- the economy recession, the mortgage issue, bank credits, and also because it is an elections year - US citizens are more conservative when planning their vacations, so tourism began to decrease at the end of 2007. Now 2008 has started bad compared with the previous year, but for the same reason, Gonzales Valenzuela assured that there is no reason to fear, because Puerto Peñasco has had 8 consecutive years of larger than normal economic growth with tourism always increasing. This season could be called a "stand by", so now during the out-of-season period there are several strategies developed with the hotel operators to counteract this situation which has generated some fear among the visitors which cancelled some prior reservations, commented some hotel operators.
Moreover, we have the new USA legislation demanding that all U.S. citizens must use their passports, something that is being informed to the potential tourist - although it is necessary to point that the legislation is not still yet mandatory on this specific region so the USA tourist has no impediment to return to his country.
On the other side, the tourism committee has decided to promote Peñasco as a family destination, aiming at a better quality of tourism instead of quantity, and trying to extend the average tourist stay 4 nights instead of the current average 3. Although that's no reason to forget the so called "youth tourism", because in Spring Break alone this tourism reaches an overall occupation level up to 95% each year.
Another point mentioned by Gonzales Valenzuela is the importance of national tourism, which also generates a large income. For instance the Holy Week (Semana santa), generated an occupation of 30,000 visitors last year - up to 100% complete and total occupation - so that's why there is more interest and emphasis in promoting Peñasco to Mexican tourists. For this year, Spring Break and the Holy Week will be very close, with Spring Break from March 10 to 20, and the Holy Week on March 20 to 23, a situation that is not really very convenient commercially speaking, because there would be only one period with a large number of visitors instead of the usual two.
But nevertheless Gonzales Valenzuela said that there would be some economic improvement during the middle of the year, months in which the economy will recover with the help from merchants, hotel operators and the city council, who are working together for the benefit of Puerto Peñasco, bringing back the high level of tourist visitors to our city.
It is used to say in the stock market that "what goes up must come down." Well, Puerto Peñasco's tourism business 'went up' starting in 2007 and then went down by the end of the year. Compared with 2006, there was an increase of 15% to 20%, for an overall total room occupation around 65 to 68%, with the vacation period and the long weekends registering up to 90% occupation of hotels. This gave a positive boost to the our economy, says Conventions and Visitors Office (OCV) Director Rafael Gonzales Valenzuela. He calls these 'respectful' numbers compared with previous years - especially considering the problems affecting the USA economy, since it its that country which generates most of the tourism traffic to the harbor.
Because of the economic situation in our neighboring country- the economy recession, the mortgage issue, bank credits, and also because it is an elections year - US citizens are more conservative when planning their vacations, so tourism began to decrease at the end of 2007. Now 2008 has started bad compared with the previous year, but for the same reason, Gonzales Valenzuela assured that there is no reason to fear, because Puerto Peñasco has had 8 consecutive years of larger than normal economic growth with tourism always increasing. This season could be called a "stand by", so now during the out-of-season period there are several strategies developed with the hotel operators to counteract this situation which has generated some fear among the visitors which cancelled some prior reservations, commented some hotel operators.
Moreover, we have the new USA legislation demanding that all U.S. citizens must use their passports, something that is being informed to the potential tourist - although it is necessary to point that the legislation is not still yet mandatory on this specific region so the USA tourist has no impediment to return to his country.
On the other side, the tourism committee has decided to promote Peñasco as a family destination, aiming at a better quality of tourism instead of quantity, and trying to extend the average tourist stay 4 nights instead of the current average 3. Although that's no reason to forget the so called "youth tourism", because in Spring Break alone this tourism reaches an overall occupation level up to 95% each year.
Another point mentioned by Gonzales Valenzuela is the importance of national tourism, which also generates a large income. For instance the Holy Week (Semana santa), generated an occupation of 30,000 visitors last year - up to 100% complete and total occupation - so that's why there is more interest and emphasis in promoting Peñasco to Mexican tourists. For this year, Spring Break and the Holy Week will be very close, with Spring Break from March 10 to 20, and the Holy Week on March 20 to 23, a situation that is not really very convenient commercially speaking, because there would be only one period with a large number of visitors instead of the usual two.
But nevertheless Gonzales Valenzuela said that there would be some economic improvement during the middle of the year, months in which the economy will recover with the help from merchants, hotel operators and the city council, who are working together for the benefit of Puerto Peñasco, bringing back the high level of tourist visitors to our city.
GOVERNORS INCREASE EMERGENCY HELP, FIGHT BORDER VIOLENCE
GOVERNORS INCREASE EMERGENCY HELP, FIGHT BORDER VIOLENCE
International partnerships improve border security, quality of life, infrastructure
PHOENIX - Governor Janet Napolitano and Sonoran Governor Eduardo Bours Castelo signed eight agreements addressing drug and weapon trafficking, felony fugitives, emergency response and border infrastructure in the Arizona-Sonora region at the Arizona-Mexico Commission's (AMC) 2008 Summer Plenary Session.
"As neighbors, collaboration is essential to our success in combating issues affecting the region," said Governor Napolitano. "Not only will partnerships advance our global competitiveness, but more importantly it will improve the quality of life for Arizonans and Sonorans."To expand cooperation between Arizona and Sonora, Governors Bours and Napolitano signed the following agreements:
Expansion of eTrace - Provides a secure Web based method to effectively and efficiently trace firearms recovered in crimes and reduce the number of illegal weapons moving through Arizona. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will provide training to Sonoran police on how to identify guns, ammunition and explosives; recover obliterated serial numbers on guns; and record the information.
Expansion of State Fugitive and Felony Detail - Builds upon the directive from Governor Napolitano to the Arizona Department of Public Safety to develop a task force to identify and catch fugitives in Arizona. Now the mission includes fugitives in both states with intelligence sharing and training between Arizona and Sonora law enforcement. The agreement also addresses the extradition issues to enhance the return of criminals to the appropriate state for prosecution.
Illegal Narcotics Agreement - Shares intelligence between officials in both states regarding drug trafficking organizations that use Arizona as a gateway into the U.S. This program will allow the U.S. to prosecute Mexican nationals arrested on American soil for smuggling narcotics.
AZ3D Agreement - Spurs the exploration of sharing cross-border geospatial information among first responders, homeland security personnel and emergency managers during a crisis.
Border Emergency Agreement - Allows for the closest response team to provide help to citizens on either side of the border in emergency situations.
2015 Border Infrastructure Plan -Supports full cross-border coordination and cooperation for all Port of Entry projects and will educate stakeholders about the growth in commercial traffic at border entry points.
Health Highways Agreement - Increases community awareness of the public health problem and better protect the residents of this region by coordinating the sharing of educational information regarding highway safety and promoting the coordination of education campaigns.
Tri-National Emergency Response Plan - Provides emergency notification and communication, routine emergency planning and cross-border emergency planning, coordinated between the states of Arizona and Sonora and the Tohono O'odham Nation.
During this year's plenary, Professional Medical Transportation (PMT) Ambulance donated an ambulance to Puerto Penasco, Sonora. Additionally, the city of Hermosillo, Sonora received a van equipped to help the disabled as part of a joint donation effort between Phoenix Sister Cities and Veolia Transportation.
The AMC Plenary Session united approximately 500 people. Governors Napolitano and Bours met with public and private sector business leaders, legislators, policy influencers and community leaders from Arizona and Mexico to connect communities, change business and affect state policy to enhance the economy and quality of life in the Arizona-Sonora region.
International partnerships improve border security, quality of life, infrastructure
PHOENIX - Governor Janet Napolitano and Sonoran Governor Eduardo Bours Castelo signed eight agreements addressing drug and weapon trafficking, felony fugitives, emergency response and border infrastructure in the Arizona-Sonora region at the Arizona-Mexico Commission's (AMC) 2008 Summer Plenary Session.
"As neighbors, collaboration is essential to our success in combating issues affecting the region," said Governor Napolitano. "Not only will partnerships advance our global competitiveness, but more importantly it will improve the quality of life for Arizonans and Sonorans."To expand cooperation between Arizona and Sonora, Governors Bours and Napolitano signed the following agreements:
Expansion of eTrace - Provides a secure Web based method to effectively and efficiently trace firearms recovered in crimes and reduce the number of illegal weapons moving through Arizona. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will provide training to Sonoran police on how to identify guns, ammunition and explosives; recover obliterated serial numbers on guns; and record the information.
Expansion of State Fugitive and Felony Detail - Builds upon the directive from Governor Napolitano to the Arizona Department of Public Safety to develop a task force to identify and catch fugitives in Arizona. Now the mission includes fugitives in both states with intelligence sharing and training between Arizona and Sonora law enforcement. The agreement also addresses the extradition issues to enhance the return of criminals to the appropriate state for prosecution.
Illegal Narcotics Agreement - Shares intelligence between officials in both states regarding drug trafficking organizations that use Arizona as a gateway into the U.S. This program will allow the U.S. to prosecute Mexican nationals arrested on American soil for smuggling narcotics.
AZ3D Agreement - Spurs the exploration of sharing cross-border geospatial information among first responders, homeland security personnel and emergency managers during a crisis.
Border Emergency Agreement - Allows for the closest response team to provide help to citizens on either side of the border in emergency situations.
2015 Border Infrastructure Plan -Supports full cross-border coordination and cooperation for all Port of Entry projects and will educate stakeholders about the growth in commercial traffic at border entry points.
Health Highways Agreement - Increases community awareness of the public health problem and better protect the residents of this region by coordinating the sharing of educational information regarding highway safety and promoting the coordination of education campaigns.
Tri-National Emergency Response Plan - Provides emergency notification and communication, routine emergency planning and cross-border emergency planning, coordinated between the states of Arizona and Sonora and the Tohono O'odham Nation.
During this year's plenary, Professional Medical Transportation (PMT) Ambulance donated an ambulance to Puerto Penasco, Sonora. Additionally, the city of Hermosillo, Sonora received a van equipped to help the disabled as part of a joint donation effort between Phoenix Sister Cities and Veolia Transportation.
The AMC Plenary Session united approximately 500 people. Governors Napolitano and Bours met with public and private sector business leaders, legislators, policy influencers and community leaders from Arizona and Mexico to connect communities, change business and affect state policy to enhance the economy and quality of life in the Arizona-Sonora region.
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