The CDU campus played host to a special Department of Commerce event that was held to boost local businesses. The gathering took place in the Keck Lecture Hall with special guests that included U.S Congresswoman Nanette Barragan and leader of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Reto Jo Lewis.
The purpose of the meeting was to help South Los Angeles business owners discover how to take advantage of global markets and hear about other business-development resources specifically for minority and women-owned businesses (MWOBs).
“At EXIM Bank, our minority and women owned business outreach division puts on symposiums like these all over the country seeking to expand equity and inclusiveness in international trade and financing by engaging so many communities that have not been served well but they are very interested in exploring exporting their goods and services,” said Reto Jo Lewis, Chair & President of Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), the official export credit agency of the United States. “Our team ensures that equitable distribution of services is there to train exporters regarding the availability of EXIM support in part of increasing community awareness by the exporter.”
EXIM is an independent Executive Branch agency with a mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services.
“How can we partner with EXIM Bank to make sure that we are doing the outreach that we need so that business owners can know about opportunities available to them, whether it’s access to power or whether it’s being sure that materials going out are provided in languages that they understand so that we reach everybody,” asked Congresswoman Barragan, U.S. representative for California’s 44th congressional district, which includes the neighborhoods surrounding the CDU campus. “One of the things I think would be great in our partnership is to figure out how do we reach out to the community and then how do we get resources to support women owned and minority businesses so that they can complete the applications and they can get through to the right people.”
Attendees also included a host of representatives from EXIM Minority & Women Owned Business Outreach, US Commercial Service Los Angeles, Women in International Trade (WIT-LA) Los Angeles, New Economics for Women, and Getting to Global.