asowah's blog

The name “Tennessee” originated from an old Yuchi Indian term "Tana-see" meaning "The Meeting Place".  With the state’s long history of entrepreneurship and innovation, it’s no coincidence that an MBDA Business Center has made its home in Memphis.  

On February 12, President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress. Last year when addressing the same body, the President laid out a blueprint of an economy built to last. One built on the idea that if we all play by the same rules and everyone is given a fair chance, America can succeed.

In the year since that speech, the United States has seen tremendous growth. The economy added 1.8 million new jobs.  Exports reached record levels in 2012 of $2.2 trillion and the deficit shrank by $200 billion.

This year, the President outlined a path forward, continuing the progress made in 2012. He proposed fair and sensible tax reform that benefits small businesses and investments in manufacturing hubs across the country to foster continued growth in that sector. As he noted, the manufacturing sector has added about 500,000 new jobs during the past three years. Reinforcing the idea that "Made in America" is still the best brand around the world, companies like Caterpillar and Apple are bringing jobs back to America.

On Friday, January 4, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed Executive Directive No. 27 establishing the Office of Contractor Relations for the City of Los Angeles.

The office, part of the Mayor’s Economic and Business Policy Office, is designed to enact and oversee programs, policies, and procedures to ensure that all businesses, including small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses, have an equal opportunity to participate in city contracts.  It will be tasked with the responsibility to establish and achieve contracting goals as well as strengthen the city’s outreach to minority, veteran, and women-owned firms.

Export-Import Bank: Your Global Finance Partner

As U.S. businesses seek to expand their global footprint in emerging markets, the demand for a dependable global financial partner is imperative.  The Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank of the United States is the official credit agency of the United States and offers solutions to U.S. companies to assist with demystifying international financing options.  Its mission is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets. 

“So let us honor those who came before by striving toward their example, and let us follow in their footsteps toward the better future that is ours to claim.”

 President Barack Obama, 2013 National African American History Month Proclamation

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice.  His hopes to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925.  The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation's bicentennial.  By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story.