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Bush official announces federal program for minority business
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Posted On: Monday January 26th, 2004 at 12:00am EST
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SUMMARY
(Press coverage in Seattle, Washington. January 26, 2004, Monday. 232 words. )
A senior Bush official hopes a new federal program will help the state's
minority-owned businesses gain jobs and money. National director of the
Minority Business Development Agency, Ronald Langston, was in Seattle to
announce the creation of a business assistance center.
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A senior Bush administration official hopes a new program to assist
minority owned businesses in Washington state will increase the sector's
access to jobs and money.
"Minority businesses have become very viable stockholders in the
American economy," said Ronald N. Langston, national director of the
Minority Business Development Agency.
Langston met Monday with about 30 minority business leaders in
Seattle. He was scheduled to make similar stops in San Francisco and
Honolulu.
Before the round-table discussion at the Seattle Greater Chamber of
Commerce, Langston's office had announced the creation of a business
assistance center to provide minority entrepreneurs with help in marketing,
accounting, business planning and gaining access to capital.
There are approximately 42,935 minority owned businesses in Washington
state, only about 1.41 percent of the total, according to the Census
Bureau's 1997 Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprise. The survey is
done every five years and results of the 2002 survey are expected sometime
in March.
The 1997 survey showed that minority companies garnered about $11.3
million in business. Langston said under the new three-year program, which
is set to go online in April, the goal would be to increase sales to at
least $15 million.
"This region can be very instrumental in moving the numbers," Langston
said. |
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