U.S. Small Business Administration and United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Join Forces to Cultivate Hispanic Business - YAHOO!

To: BUSINESS, LABOR AND NATIONAL EDITORS

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) today announced that they have signed a Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) that will support thousands of Hispanic small businesses and entrepreneurs, enabling them to expand and create more jobs.

"The Memorandum signals SBA's renewed commitment to ensuring that Hispanic business has access to the same opportunities to succeed," said Javier Palomarez, President and CEO of the USHCC. "And while there is work to be done, we are confident that Hispanic entrepreneurs will provide a great return on this investment. These businesses not only fuel the American economy, but are also at the leading edge of our recovery."

The SBA is charged with helping to support and protect the interests of small businesses by providing financial and business development assistance, and contracting opportunities to this key group of entrepreneurs. Through this collaboration, the SBA and USHCC will work with national and local Hispanic organizations to increase Hispanic-owned small business participation in SBA programs, including:

-- loan programs and access to capital initiatives; -- government contracting programs like the 8(a) program and the Women-Owned Small Business Program; and -- international trade opportunities to achieve the goals of the President's National Export Initiative.

Mr. Palomarez believes that the alliance will help mine untapped potential. "Despite the challenges brought about by the recession, Hispanic businesses have still managed to thrive, growing over 44 percent in the past five years and generating new ventures three times faster than the general population."

Fueled by the 3 million Hispanic businesses, purchasing power has also risen from $212 billion in 1990 to over a trillion dollars today. In addition, small business represents 64 percent of all jobs in America and Hispanic small business is the fastest-growing segment in that sector.

About The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Founded in 1979, the USHCC actively promotes the economic growth and development of Hispanic entrepreneurs and represents the interests of over 3 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States that combined generate in excess of $420 billion annually. It also serves as the umbrella organization for more than 200 local Hispanic chambers and business associations in the United States and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit www.ushcc.com.

SOURCE United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

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Africa: Progress in Regulatory Reform Expands Business Opportunities Across Ohada Member States - AllAfrica.com

World Bank (Washington, DC)

25 January 2012

press release

Mali — A new report from IFC and the World Bank finds that member states of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) have increased the pace of reform in making it easier for local firms to do business.

The report, Doing Business in the OHADA Member States 2012, draws on data from the annual global Doing Business study and takes a detailed look at business regulations in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The report states that the 16 OHADA member states could benefit from sharing good practices in business regulation as measured by Doing Business.

Founded in Mauritius in 1993, OHADA is a system of business laws and implementing institutions adopted by 16 West and Central African nations. OHADA is the French acronym for "Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires."

The average ranking of the OHADA member states is 166 out of the 183 economies measured in the global Doing Business 2012 report. Mali, with a global rank of 146, is the easiest place among OHADA member states for an entrepreneur to do business, followed by Burkina Faso (150) and Senegal (154). In the past six years, all 16 OHADA member states made it easier to do business. Across the region, the average cost of starting a business decreased from 338 percent to 110 percent of the average per capita income. The average time required to register property also decreased by 28 percent.

No single economy outperformed the others across the board. But in some of the categories that were measured, the region's economies are comparable to the world's best performers. Senegal, for example, has reduced the time needed to set up a business to only five days through its "one-stop shop" system - the same amount of time as in Canada. After four years of successive reforms, dealing with construction permits in Burkina Faso takes only 98 days - three months faster than the European Union average.

"Competitive economies cannot ignore what their neighbors are doing", said Dorothé Sossa, Permanent Secretary of OHADA. "Pooling, as is the case with OHADA, and sharing reform experiences is an opportunity to improve national and regional competitiveness."

One of OHADA's priorities is to establish a uniform legal framework to govern business activities in the region's economies. This year, the first revision of the body of commercial laws in the region simplified business entry in eight member states and strengthened secured transaction laws in all 16 member states.

"The overhaul of the common business legislation addressed two of the top constraints to enterprise development and investment in Africa: access to finance and the quality of the legal framework," said Pierre Guislain, Director of Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group.

Doing Business in OHADA Member States 2012 was prepared as part of the OHADA Business Law Reform Program of the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group. The program includes support to the OHADA member states and the OHADA Permanent Secretariat in reforming and implementing the common set of laws.

About the World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org, www.miga.org, and www.ifc.org.

About the Doing Business report series

Doing Business analyzes regulations that apply to an economy's businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 183 economies. Previous year's rankings are back-calculated to account for the addition of new indicator(s), data corrections, and methodology changes in existing indicators so as to provide a meaningful comparison with the new rankings. Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, the level of skills, or the strength of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates in more than 80 economies and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies. For more information about the Doing Business report series, please visit www.doingbusiness.org. Join us on Facebook.

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C4ISR hosts briefing for industry, small business conference - United States Army

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (Dec. 21, 2011) -- Army leaders at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., hosted an advance planning briefing for industry, or ABPI, and small business conference to inform industry and business leaders of new opportunities to demonstrate their technologies for potential military use.

At a panel during the event, Chuck Pizzutelli, assistant Program Executive Officer for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical, known as PEO C3T, discussed specific steps the PEO C3T Technical Industrial Liaison Office is taking to contribute to this effort.

The semi-annual Network Integration Evaluation, NIE, which is part of the agile acquisition process that relies on Soldier feedback to rapidly incorporate new technologies into the Army portfolio, is emerging as one of the most effective processes for introducing new products to PEO C3T, Pizzutelli said.

"[We pay attention] whenever thumbs get raised or when (Soldiers) see a nice toy or capability out there -- that's the way we're looking for new products," Pizzutelli told the audience. "So, if you're looking to market things to us, I urge you to play on that."

Pizzutelli acknowledged the resources required for businesses to try out products in the NIE environment at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., but stressed that the Army will work with businesses of all sizes that demonstrate mature network solutions. Part of the NIE cycle and agile process involves first testing products in the laboratory environment at Aberdeen Proving Ground, known as APG.

This ensures that they are properly integrated into the network before being placed in Soldiers' hands, and that industry receives a thorough report on system performance, he said.

Pizzutelli joined hundreds of Army officials and trade leaders from companies ranging from large defense contractors to small businesses at the ABPI conference held earlier this month.

Kashia Simmons, public affairs officer for the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, or CERDEC, said this event helped explain to industry the mission of each Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, known as C4ISR, organization at APG, and how they work together on different programs and initiatives.

"Our industry partners are key to how well we are able to equip the Soldier," he said. "And if they don't know what we're doing, they can't appropriately help us get these capabilities into the hands of the Soldiers."

Teamwork within the C4ISR community, Simmons said, becomes essential.

"The opportunity to talk about how all those relationships cut across lines is really important," he said. "So, folks who have particular capabilities can see how they fit into our community from the research and development, sustainment and also from the program management perspective."

Direct contact with customers, Simmons said, solidifies CERDEC's ability to serve them.

"What better opportunity to learn what people need and want to know about our organization than to sit and speak to our customers and partners one-on-one and hear their questions," he said.

Business leaders from multiple states crowded into the conference hall to make new contacts and learn better ways to pool their resources with C4ISR organizations. Richard Usmiller, vice president of Human Capital for Savantage Solutions, was one of them.

With offices at Fort Belvoir, Va., Savantage Solutions is a software company that supplies Commercial-Off-The-Shelf, or COTS, products to federal agencies. Usmiller came to the C4ISR conference looking for ways to fuse Savantage's resources with C4ISR's.

The key for most of the attendees, Usmiller said, is the timeline. Receiving thorough and up-to-date information from the Army is essential to being able to compete, he said.

"Especially for small companies who are resource-limited," he said. "The key is anticipating and being able to bid on opportunities down the road."

For PEO C3T, the Technical Industrial Liaison Office is serving as the single point of entry for new vendors interested in partnering with the organization. The office's mission is to maintain a repository of vendor data and to maintain an updated journal of vendor dispositions to prevent redundant proposals.

During the panel, Pizzutelli discussed how PEO C3T is merging competitor outreach with the organization's long-standing goal of developing, fielding and supporting networked mission command solutions to enhance combat effectiveness.

Aside from the NIE, Pizzutelli highlighted several outreach opportunities being spearheaded by the Technical Industrial Liaison Office to support fielding and sustainment efforts on the battlefield. More information about these opportunities can be found at the Fed Biz Ops public website at https://www.fbo.gov.

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