Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton is headed to Mexico this week. He and city manager David Cavazos are the only two American officials invited to speak to Mexico’s annual Conference of Municipalities.

Stanton and Cavazos will speak about long-term planning and financial management at the city level.

Stanton says Mexican businesses and government leaders are well aware of Arizona’s tough anti-illegal immigration laws, and he wants to address their concerns.

GREG STANTON: There’s a lot of investors, lot of wealthy investors in Mexico, that are going to be making important decisions, as the economy improves, where they are going to be investing their money. We’re ready for that investment in our city. We have some incredible economic opportunities. And we don’t want to lose out on that because of political stuff.

According to the Arizona Department of Commerce, nearly two thirds of Arizona exports to Mexico were originated from the Phoenix metro area.