Ambassadors get a peek at what the city has to offer
Nearly 40 envoys tour Houston to learn about its culture and find opportunities for business growth
José Luis Rocha, ambassador for Cabo Verde off the coast of West Africa, stared intently at the tablet.
Through a series of games, he selected the direction of the center arrow and searched for the word “green” written in a different color. He stood up with his arms outstretched and moved the tablet, directing a blue ball into a circle.
Rocha, visiting the Texas Medical Center’s accelerator TMCx Thursday, was using BrainCheck on the tablet to test for a concussion. He’s among 37 foreign ambassadors in Houston this week learning about the city’s culture, business opportunities and entrepreneurial spirit.
When Rocha finished his test, he put the tablet down with an audible “whew.” A ping-pong player, he said it was fun to test his reflexes.
For the trip overall, Rocha said he was amazed by all of the opportunities he saw during his first visit to Houston. Between Wednesday and Friday, he’ll have gone to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Port of Houston and the Chevron office for a roundtable energy discussion. He’ll have also met former President
George H.W. Bush.
“So far, it’s a very amazing experience discovering Houston,” he said.
These U.S. Department of State’s Experience America trips are an opportunity for ambassadors to get out of the nation’s capital and onto the streets of America.
Houston is the 18th such trip in a years-long series, with previous destinations including Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Austin and Miami.
Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, the ambassador for Singapore, said the trips provide both an opportunity to better understand the U.S. and an opportunity to take new ideas and partnerships back home.
At TMCx, he asked questions to learn about the synergies between the accelerator, the Innovation Institute and the Texas Medical Center. Singapore has a research hub that is not linked with a medical center, and he was inquiring about advantages of the two working together.
“I’m actually trying to learn and see how we could do something similar,” he said.
For Thursday’s midday meal, the ambassadors attended a Greater Houston Partnership luncheon at Hotel ZaZa. They shared tables with 68 Houston business people.
Bob Harvey, president and CEO of the partnership, welcomed the ambassadors and touted the city’s diversity. With the countries represented in the room, Harvey said, Houston does more than $20 billion in import and export trade.
There are 60 Houston companies with 193 subsidiaries in their nations around the world, and 50 companies from their various nations have subsidiaries in Houston.
He did, however, lament the weather. “They probably didn’t tell you that it would be 84 degrees Fahrenheit,” Harvey said.
Former mayor Bill White also gave a presentation on Houston as a global city.
“I think, in general, part of the success in Houston has been the way that we’ve overcome barriers and differences between people to focus on the common issues,” White said.
Jose Oti, an associate with Beth Wolff Realtors, used the luncheon to meet José Ramón Cabañas, the ambassador for Cuba. Oti, also Cuban, exchanged business cards with Cabañas.
Cabañas became the ambassador for Cuba in September but has been in Washington for three years. He said there’s a variety of opportunities between Cuba and Houston, including travel, medical care and research, energy and the ports.
“It’s another step for bringing Texas and Houston and Cuba together,” he said of the trip.
Rocha will recommend Cabo Verde open a consulate office in Houston, which he said has a wide variety of business opportunities. And Cabo Verde can be a port for the city in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Houston is also connected to the rest of the world,” he said. “This is very important.”