Puerto Rico MBDA Business Center’s MED Week Event Helps Local Entrepreneurs, Businesses Expand Their Opportunities

Puerto Rican businesses and entrepreneurs looking for opportunities that drive growth found them during Puerto Rico’s MBDA Business Center’s Minority Enterprise Development Week (MED Week) conference held on January 30^th in San Juan’s Condado Plaza Hotel.

The MED Week in Puerto Rico continued the celebration of the Minority Business Development Agency’s (MBDA) 45^th Anniversary.  It was also another opportunity to amplify our continued efforts in Puerto Rico to assist minority-owned firms grow in size and scale, and diversify into the industries of tomorrow.

To that end, this past year, we engaged the Puerto Rico MBDA Business Center on several important business endeavors.  One of them was ensuring that minority firms in Puerto Rico were well positioned to export, and that’s precisely why we invited James W. Brewster, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic to be the keynote speaker at this year’s MED Week event.  As a critical trade partner, we wanted to talk about the exporting opportunities that exist in the Dominican Republic, but also throughout all the Caribbean nations.

The other critical effort that we’ve been working on with the Puerto Rico MBDA Business Center is collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP), to develop a supply chain mapping of the aerospace industry in Puerto Rico.

Last year, Lufthansa Technik Group broke ground in Puerto Rico and has created a very large airplane maintenance hangar.  We want to make sure that there is a thorough supply chain mapping that will assist Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) in Puerto Rico get into the supply chain of companies like Lufthansa, Honeywell and others, and really help develop the Puerto Rico aerospace industry.

Lastly, this is also in collaboration with the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico and the work they’ve been doing during the past six years in support of the growth of the Puerto Rico economy on many fronts.

The Puerto Rico MED Week event provided opportunities like business-to business sessions, as well as insight from key leaders from federal and private industries, all geared to empower local entrepreneurs with tools that could help their business grow. There was also an award ceremony recognizing the accomplishments of local minority business leaders.

MBDA looks forward to continuing our partnership with the many MBEs in Puerto Rico, not just to help them find opportunities on the island, but opportunities everywhere.

For more information on the Puerto Rico MBDA Business Center or any of MBDA’s 44 Business Centers, please visit www.mbda.gov.