Fort Bend’s diversity an asset Global initiatives underway By Elsa Maxey
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aking advantage of the diversity of Fort Bend County, the most ethnically diverse in the U.S., is what spurred the initiation of the Fort Bend Global Initiative that residents hear about from time to time. It started in 2009, “Allison Wen and I were both talking” and it was “about building relationships and profiling Fort Bend County on an international basis, and also for seeking economic development opportunities for local businesses,” said Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert. Allison Wen is an event guru in Fort Bend and the owner of the Safari Texas Ranch in Richmond. According to the 2010 federal census, Fort Bend comes closer than any other county in the nation for having an equal distribution of four major ethnic groups - 19 percent Asian, 24 percent Latino, 21 percent African-American and 36 percent Anglo, findings in a report by the Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Judge Hebert predicts that diversity is going to occur throughout the world. “We can’t stop it,” he said, and “communities around the world are becoming diverse.” What benefits Fort Bend is that “we have the advantage of getting there early, and a lot of folks in this community see that diversity is an asset.” Looking at the positive side and building on that diversity is the judge’s mantra. He’s just returned from Foshan in China. “We went over there at their invitation to talk to a large group of business executives about foreign trade zones in the United States and their availability in Fort Bend County,” Judge Hebert told the Fort Bend Business Journal. “We will have to see what comes out of that.” The judge’s visit in June included a presentation he made on foreign trade zones and what they offer. Essentially, businesses participating in foreign trade zones have been able to benefit their bottom line by saving money. Within a foreign trade zone serving Fort Bend County, such as the port in Freeport, Texas, company goods could be unloaded, manufactured, reassembled, tested, sampled, processed, repackaged, and re-exported without the intervention of U.S. customs authorities. Only when goods would be moved outside the zone would they become subject to U.S. customs duties. Fort Bend County is continuing its relationship with a memorandum of agreement with the Chanchen District of Foshan City of the People’s Republic of China signed in 2012, after a preliminary visit was made the previous year. “We call it a sister community,” said Judge Hebert and the county has a five year agreement subject to renewal based on mutual benefit. Last September another delegation of Fort Bend leaders from Fort Bend traveled to the Republic of Turkey. “The trip was a result of coordination by the Fort Bend Global Initiative with the purpose of establishing a friendship relationship with both the cities of Adana and Kahramanmaras,” one on the Mediterranean and the other referred to
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Pictured left to right: Allison Wen, Fort Bend Friendship Committee; Ms. Yang Ti Li, Foshan New Media Park; Michael Liu, Fort Bend Friendship Committee; Isaac Horton, Scientific Production Ventures, LLC; Robert Hebert, Fort Bend County Judge; Jeff Wiley, Greater Fort Bend Economic Council; Dr. Thomas Randle, Lamar Consolidated ISD; Jason Sheng, Fort Bend Friendship Committee; Xinliang Li, President of Foshan New Media Park.
as Moresh, close to it, said Judge Hebert. Agreements in Turkey were signed for friendly cooperation relating to the economy and trade, education and training, environmental protection and cultural exchange. In was in 2013, when “we were invited to Turkey and that’s a unique story, too,” said Judge Hebert. “Very well received” in Instanbul, the largest city in Turkey, a delegation that included Judge Hebert, Chris Breaux, Allison Wen of Global Initiatives, Beth Wolf, Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce CEO Kerri Schmidt, and Precinct 2 Fort Bend County Commissioner Grady Prestage, stayed for two days there. “We were going over there to execute a sister community agreement with Adana and an economic agreement with the smaller cities.” But, the fighting in Syria had just flared up “when we went over there,” said Judge Hebert, and “the State Department evacuated the families of consulate employees in Adana,” which is 150-miles from the Syrian border. Instead of visiting in Adana and Karamanmaras, for safety reasons the delegation spent its time in Istanbul and visited with the Chamber of Commerce there, and then went to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. “It was very safe, far removed from the Syrian border,” he recalls noting that delegations from the two cities intended for the visit were sent to the capital to meet with the Fort Bend interest group. “We accomplished basically what we wanted,” said Judge Hebert. What later followed was a recent local performance of a Turkish pianist last November. Evren Kutlay, a Turkish musicologist and pianist of Kahramanmaraş, Fort Bend County’s sister community, was invited by the judge to share her talent in conjunction with the Fort Bend Global Initiative, which includes the coordination of cultural relationships in addition to those of the economy and education..
August 2014 H Fort Bend / Katy Business Journal
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