(September 30, 2013) As part of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) annual conference, the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Institute for Economic Development (IED) provided a three-day training preparing MBDA staff to take the NASBITE Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) test.
CGBP training is divided into five modules that help prepare participants to sit for the CGBP exam. The CGBP is an internationally recognized certification for professionals in the United States and Mexico and confirms knowledge in international trade and assures that certified participants are able to practice global business at the professional level required in today’s competitive environment. There are currently more than 550 Certified Global Business Professionals in the United States and abroad.
According to MBDA National Director David Hinson, the CGBP training is critical in supporting MBDA clients as they prepare to globalize their business model. “With U.S. minority-owned businesses nearly twice as likely to export as non-minority owned businesses, and 95% of the world’s consumers living outside the United States, the CGBP training provides MBDA staff the sophisticated skill set to conduct superior consulting to U.S. minority exporters and enhance economic opportunities for all Americans.”
In an effort to further accommodate the growing global needs of minority-owned businesses, the Minority Business Development Agency tasked the Institute for Economic Development San Antonio MBDA Business Center with starting a pilot MBDA Global Business Center. In it’s first year, the Global Business Center has been extremely successful, and funding has been extended for an additional year.
Global Business Center Project Manager David Leister said, “the tendency for tomorrow is further globalization and probably a significant steady increase in hemispheric trade. Minority-owned companies who gain export experience today will reap ever increasing market growth benefits tomorrow as trade and technology advance and cultural barriers become less formidable.”