WASHINGTON, DC: Joshua I.S Smith, Chairman of the U.S. commission on Minority Business Development, Sept.16 announced the Commission’s completion of its final report to the President and the Congress.
In the report, the Commission urges that minority-owned firms be viewed alongside other national economic priorities. In this context, minority business programs will be seen as a tool for economic solutions, not an obstacle on the road to sustained economic growth, It can be demonstrated that such programs will generate far more national economic wealth than they may consume, therefore they are well worth the investment. Efforts to develop minority business are not social programs; they are small investments in America’s economic system that can greatly pay off in the future.
Mr. Smith said that included among the Commission’s numerous recommendations are sweeping changes that will improve the effectiveness of the SEA’s Small Business and Capital Ownership Development program, Defense Department minority business procurement policies, access to capital and bonding acquisition and streamlining minority business certification procedures nationally. Smith added, “the findings and recommendations of this Commission are in no way intended to decimate the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Program nor any other federal initiative which is designed to Support minority business,”
The Commission on Minority Business Development was established by Public Law 100-656, the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988. Its mandated purpose is to review and provide an assessment of federal programs intended to promote the development of minority business and the determination as to whether those programs are meeting their objectives.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 2, 1992
