MBDA Agency

There is a tremendous opportunity to interact with over 500 Chinese government leaders and business representatives from a wide spectrum of industries.  These Chinese firms will meet with U.S. exporters and explore investment opportunities in several U.S. cities, including Chicago, Houston, Raleigh, N.C., and Washington, D.C.

Many firms are intensifying their efforts to market their products and services to countries such as China.  Today, American companies are selling more merchandise and services to China than ever before. Exports to China totaled $85 billion in 2009, a 72 percent increase from 2005. In the first 11 months of 2010, total U.S. exports grew 17 percent compared to the same period in 2009.

MBDA encourages you to take advantage of this unique opportunity to expand your growth and profit potential with one of this country’s largest trading partners. China is a key export market for U.S. goods and services, and a focus of President Obama’s National Export Initiative that calls for doubling U.S. exports in five years to support millions of American jobs. Read the Report to the President on the National Export Initiative: The Export Promotion Cabinet’s Plan for Doubling U.S. Exports in Five Years

Today, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the appointment of 25 members to the new National Advisory Council for Minority Business Enterprises.  The advisory council will be led by the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and provide advice and recommendations to the department and the administration on a broad range of policy issues affecting the minority business community. 

The new council is the first to focus on promoting minority businesses since around 1969, when President Nixon established MBDA – formerly the Office of Minority Business Enterprise – and an advisory council to oversee and advise the new office.

The minority business community is an engine of economic growth and job creation. Today, there are approximately 5.8 million minority-owned firms generating $1 trillion annually and employing nearly 6 million workers. Yet, there continues to be challenges within the minority business community.  Of those 5.8 million firms, only 800,000 have more than one employee and the gap in average annual revenue between minority-owned and non-minority-owned firms is significant.

Don Chapman with the Minority Business Development Agency discusses the panel review process for MBDA Business Center grant applications.

MBDA National Director David Hinson, along with a 27-member delegation of U.S. corporate executives and minority-owned businesses, recently completed a China Business Opportunity Trade Mission to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. The goal of the trade mission was to meet with potential corporate, government and university partners and attend the Minority Supplier Development (MSD) China Summit and Business Opportunity Fair.

The trip was organized by the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC) to foster business relations between American corporate and minority-owned businesses, corporate members of MSD China, and Chinese ethnic minority businesses that are not a part of the Han Chinese majority in China and Taiwan.