BUILDING COMMUNITIES AND PARTNERSHIPS FOR A STRONGER AMERICA

 

This year The Latino Coalition, a leading advocate for Latino-owned small and medium-sized businesses, has partnered with the US Chamber of Commerce to host its annual business conference America's Small Business Summit from April 29-May 1 in Washington, DC.

The 2013 America's Small Business Summit will host more than 40 speakers and panelists on key issues important to small business such as: procurement opportunities, newly available financing, risk management, legal reform, healthcare, immigration and international trade.

In addition to face-to-face opportunities for business development, the summit will bring together more than 600 small business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs from across the country to network, learn, and advocate for policies that support small business growth.

IMPACTO discussed with Chairman of The Latino Coalition, Hector Barreto the upcoming summit, Latino business, and immigration reform.  Mr. Barreto, former head of the US Small Business Administration is a nationally recognized businessman and community leader, he is Chair of the Latino Coalition and is on the Board of the US Chamber of Commerce.  As Chairman of The Latino Coalition, Mr. Barreto helps oversee a national organization that represents Latino interests with senior executives of many Fortune 500 companies and both federal and local government agencies.

IMPACTO: How did The Latino Coalition-US Chamber of Commerce partnership come about and what are its shared goals?

HECTOR BARRETO: "I have worked with the US Chamber of Commerce for many years, as you may recall I was the Small Business Administrator under George W. Bush, after I left the agency and took the helm of The Latino Coalition, the US Chamber reached out to us and said, 'we do a small business event every year and you do a small business event every year; why don't we partner together and see if we can bring our two communities closer?'  The event has turned into the largest small business summit in the country.  A three day event that will draw over 3000 business owners from all across the United States. There will be Latino-owned businesses, woman-owned businesses, african-american-owned businesses; businesses of every type and size will be there."

Mr. Barreto explains that at this year's summit there will be a whole host of activities that will take place over the three days. There is an impresive list of speakers such as Steve Forbes; CEO's of corporations like Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, Jim Koch CEO of Boston Beer Co, and Linda Alvarado CEO of Alvarado Construction. On the second day of the summit,The Latino Coalition is coordinating a business matchmaking session which is expected to draw over 20 government agencies and numerous fortune 500 companies and match them with small/medium business to create new business partnerships. Since the business matchmaking program began 8 years ago, there have been over 80,000 appointments which have led to over $8 billion in contracts. On the third day of the summit, there will be a healthcare symposium with the Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to talk about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and what the implications are for small businesses and the hispanic community. There will be a delegation from Mexico, including the uncle of Peña Nieto, alongside the forth most experts in the country to discuss comprehensive immigration reform.  There will be a closing reception to recognize the over 60 organization partners across the United States which represents a database of 1.2 million hispanic businesses.

IMPACTO: What are the biggest obstacles facing Latino small and medium sized business owners today and what is The Latino Coalition doing to address these issues?

HECTOR BARRETO:  "I always say that Latino businesses need exactly that which every business needs, they need capital, right now it is very difficult to get capital, capital is really the oxygen that small businesses need to start and to grow, but you also need capital at every moment in a business life whether you are a fortune 500 company or a start-up.

Training is very important, many times small businesses don't know what they don't know, they may be good at making a product but not at selling that product, or they don't know how to use technology, or how to hire someone they may need for their company; we can help them with the training programs we have to offer.

Every business needs more business, if you can help a business get more business they can take care of many other problems themselves and that's where business matchmaking comes in, that's where the networking comes in, that's where access to these programs comes in.

Cost control is important. It becomes very expensive for small businesses to provide healthcare, energy, and to hire people, so if you can help them lower their cost of operation that is something that goes right to their bottom line."

IMPACTO: Obviously the topic on everyones mind right now is the comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) proposal currently being debated. This is an issue that affects the Latino community directly in many ways, not only on a personal level but also at business, community and political levels.  What is The Latino Coalition's position on the current proposal?

HECTOR BARRETO: "We have been involved with comprehensive immigration reform for a long time. When I was in the administration that was the last time we had a serious effort, unfortunately the political environment at the time did not allow us to get it done, but we are still big champions of this.  There is not a bill out there, nothing has been approved, but we have been very vocal and very supportive of the approach the gang of eight as taken in the senate and in the house to achieve a CIR solution.  I sit on the board of the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest and most powerful chamber in the world and this is their number one legislative priority and we have joined with them advocating and promoting and making sure elected officials on both sides of the isle understand how important this is; not just for the Latino community but for our country, our economy and our future."

IMPACTO:  Does The Latino Coalition find any points in the CIR proposal to be problamatic?

HECTOR BARRETO: "One of the things we understand is that it is a very complicated and comprehensive bill, there are many things there which one side or the other are not going to like, and one thing you will learn from being in Washington is that if you come to the middle, if you come to a compromise, then neither side is going to be completely happy, but that's usually how you are going to make legislation.  If it is too one sided then normally it doesn't happen and I've seen that happen too often.  There are still many details to be discussed but I think the principals make sense...every country has right to secure its borders, we still live in dangerous times as evidence of what we saw in Boston, security is important and will be done, now we have better technology and have an opportunity to get it done.  Details such as time frames for citenzship will be negotiated, but I think the key objective is to normalize the 11 million people here and bring them out of the shadows so they can make the contributions they want to make to this country. I think everyone understands how important this is. We have an opportunity to solve this once and for all.  I want to applaud the bipartisian leadership in the congress and in the administration for pushing this forward.  It is not going to be easy but it is not just a moral issue, but a fiscal, economic, and future issue."

IMPACTO: Do you believe this comprehensive immigration reform proposal will be passed this year?

HECTOR BARRETO: "I wish I knew, what I think we see is momentum.  This week I was in Dallas at the opening of the George W Bush presidential library, every living president was here, Carter, both Bushs, Clinton, Obama, and they talked about the importance of finally getting it done and commented on how it really began under a Republican administration and it might be accomplished under a Democratic administration, so I felt very good about the bi-partisian support. The speaker of the house was there, members of the senate were there, the governors where there, and they all have the same message.  I'm cautiously optimistic, I think progress has been made and I think we can come to a solution this year."

IMPACTO:  Does the Latino community have the political strength to seek more favorable terms in the CIR proposal?

HECTOR BARRETO: "The Latino community will always have a lot of power and influence and you have leaders on both sides like Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Chicago, who has worked on this for many years; Marco Rubio, Mario Diaz-Balart and many others who are pushing really hard; I feel that by the way they have treated each other, with respect and professionalism, has boded well.  The Latino community is very influential and will be even more so in the future not just because of our vote but because of our economic power as well."

IMPACTO: Any final comments/thoughts?

HECTOR BARRETO:  "I'm very proud to lead The Latino Coalition, they have a great board, great management, the organization is growing.  Our theme is building communities and partnerships for a stronger america; everything we do is with that in mind.  We are different than a chamber of commerce, yes we work with businesses, we are passionate about that, and we help them, but we also work on healthcare, education, issues like immigration reform or international trade, we have chapters in Mexico and different countries in Latin America. I am very proud of the work we have done but there is a lot of work to be done still."

For more information on The Latino Community and America's Small Business Summit please visit www.TheLatinoCoalition.com

For more information on the US Chamber of Commerce please visit www.USChamber.com

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