May 10, 2001 – Virgin Islands businesses have a chance to play with some of the national Big Boys, but Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen said she's not sure they understand "what a great opportunity it is."
Hence her telephonic press conference Thursday from her Washington, D.C., office to territory media to tout the upcoming Minority Business Enterprise Conference.
Officials from nearly a dozen federal departments and agencies and from an equal number of the nation's major corporations will be at the conference, set for May 22-25 at Marriott Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort on St. Thomas.
Christensen said this is the first time the conference is being held in the Virgin Islands, and that it "builds on" other town meetings and workshops she has sponsored for small entrepreneurs.
"The federal agencies and many of the consultants are anxious to help" Virgin Islands businesses get a bigger share of federal contracts, she said.
Washington contracts out more than $100 billion worth of work annually, Christensen said. Companies and agencies are under mandates to share that work with minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses. That makes the Virgin Islands a good place to start.
V.I. businesses can qualify for a lot of federal procurement contracts, both on-island and elsewhere, but they need to know how to compete for the jobs.
The conference is designed to help explain the needs and the procedures. Officials from the various departments and agencies will talk about the kinds of contracts they have, and how to market the federal government for those jobs.
Government entities represented at the conference are the Small Business Administration, the General Services Administration, and the Departments of Defense, Navy, Treasury, Agriculture, State and Commerce. Among the companies taking part are Raytheon, Netcom Solutions, Northrupp Grumman, EM Federal Corp. and Communications Technologies Inc.
For more information, call Christensen's Washington office at (202) 225-1790.
