P.R. Products Association receives $241K in federal funding
The Puerto Rico Products Association has been awarded with $241,000 by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency in the latest round of funding to boost job creation and foster the economic growth of minority firms.
Minority Business Enterprise Center Puerto Rico offers a variety of services to small business owners island-wide that range from very basic assistance — getting incorporation papers together — to completing more specialized procedures, such as viability studies.
The PRPA works directly with business owners and managers to also facilitate access to markets, contracts and capital and offer strategic business consulting services to spur their growth.
“The MBDA Business Center program has shown remarkable success, and with a renewed focus on job creation in high-growth industries that leverages global business opportunities and teaming arrangements, we’ve raised the performance bar,” said MBDA National Director
David Hinson. “MBCs are catalysts for minority business development, and by investing in these centers at the local level, we will see reverberating effects throughout the national economy.”
The newly restructured Minority Business Center program extends the cooperative agreements from three to five years and expands the reach of the MBC nationwide network to meet President Obama’s challenge to out-innovate, out-build, and out-educate the rest of the world.
As part of that extended reach, MBC’s will have the added responsibility of helping minority-owned businesses increase their exports, something Puerto Rico businesses are looking to increasingly do.
The PRPA is getting the money as it celebrates “Puerto Rican Industry Month” in April.
