AEI Tèxtils organized a mission to Mexico from March 28th to April 1st, together with its European partners in the TEXGLOBAL project, with 9 European textile companies, including 3 Catalan companies, members of the cluster: Triturats la Canya, CINPASA and C.P. ALUART.
The mission was organized as parallel tracks, one for clusters in order to seek synergies and strategic alliances that can benefit the different ecosystems in Europe, and one for companies focusing on their specific business needs to find partners and customers.
The cluster track included visits to different universities and associations such as the Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Textil of Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Ciudad de México, CANAINTEX – National Chamber of Textile Industry in Ciudad de México, the Secretary of Economy of the State of Puebla, to Ciudad Modelo as one of the strategic projects of the Government of the State of Puebla that represents an investment attraction node with cutting-edge design, CIEN – Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Business Center, the Mexican Textile Cluster and BUAP – Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. All these visits aimed at discovering the textile ecosystem and its innovation framework to establish bridges with European counterparts mediated by clusters such as AEI Tèxtils in Catalonia. Key results so far include the signature of several Memorandums of Understanding with several Mexican stakeholders aiming at facilitating business opportunities and exchange systems with European universities and companies in order to facilitate the student mobility and traineeships in Europe.
The company track of agendas was fully customized to each participant, with a series of pre-scheduled meetings offered by the cluster in partnership with local stakeholders. The finetuning developed during the individual agenda preparation enabled highly targeted meetings. In addition, companies were also invited to matchmakings and B2B sessions hosted at CANAINTEX and in Puebla.
AEI Tèxtils and its members rate the mission as successful which has enabled the participating companies the exploration of the Mexican market and, through the contacts made, foresees to build strategic alliances in the coming months.
Internationalization is key area of the cluster strategy addressing two major objectives: increasing the competitiveness of its members with facilitated access to third country markets and the increased visibility of the members at international level thanks to the cluster participation in key events, both in Europe and internationally.
Collaborations undertaken in TEXGLOBAL project support these activities to reinforce the links with Mexican stakeholders and facilitating access to market for the cluster members.
