VI_DAILYNEWS/PAGES [A11] | 01/27/13
21:46 | SUPERIMP
VIRGIN ISLANDS
V.I. looking for businesses
to use second STEP grant
By AMANDA NORRIS
Daily News Staff
ST. THOMAS — The Virgin
Islands Economic Development
Authority has $322,498 in federal
funds available to help local busi-
nesses develop export capacity.
The Small BusinessAdministration
awarded the territory a second State
Trade and Export Promotion (STEP)
grant in September, and the V.I.
Economic Development Authority is
now taking applications for enroll-
ment in its business development
program.
The STEP grant is part of a three-
year pilot initiative created by the
Obama administration to promote the
overseas sale of goods made in the
United States.
Last
year,
the
Economic
Development Authority used the
STEP grant to help owners of 20
local businesses overcome some of
the challenges in reaching foreign
markets. The agency plans to apply
again for fiscal year 2014.
For fiscal year 2012, the award
was $489,646, according to the
Economic Development Authority’s
STEP grant program coordinator
Nadine Marchena Kean.
Kean said this year’s award was
less because the Small Business
Administration, like many govern-
ment agencies, suffered funding cuts
as the federal government attempts to
steer itself away from a fiscal crisis.
“We still have some funds that will
carry over from the last grant, so we
feel we have a good amount to work
with,” Kean said.
The grant is not intended to be
awarded directly to businesses.
Rather, it forms the budget for a local
educational program.
To qualify for the program, a busi-
ness must have been operating for
one year, must demonstrate profit-
ability and must have specific goods
to export, Kean said.
Through STEP training, a business
owner can learn how to use the
Internet to market goods, translate
labels into foreign languages and nav-
igate complicated shipping and distri-
bution
systems.
Economic
Development Authority staff and pri-
vate sector consultants provide the
training. The agency also acts as a liai-
son between businesses, the federal
government and foreign governments
to ease the export process, Kean said.
“Business owners may have a
great V.I.-made product but no idea,
for instance, how that product will
serve people in South Korea or that a
label going to Canada is required to
have three languages by a new law,”
Kean said. “The main challenge fac-
ing business owners in new markets
is connectivity, and the STEP pro-
gram is designed to help with that.”
The president of Gold Coast
Yachts, Richard Difede, said the
company’s $3.5 million deal with a
South Korean resort group for two
catamarans would not have been pos-
sible without the assistance of the
STEP program.
South Korea, and more broadly
Asia, is an emerging market for
Difede’s sailing vessels, which are
built on St. Croix and typically sold
in central and South America and
across the Caribbean. The distance to
market, a different language and
import barriers made the deal a “sig-
nificant challenge,” Difede said, but
the STEP program provided financial
and technical support at all stages.
When reaching a market so far
away, “everything is different, from
export clearance in the Virgin Islands
to customs clearance when products
get in,” Difede said. “What they gave
us was an understanding of how the
U.S. export system works and support
for everything from marketing to
opening up chains of communication
with the State Department’s commer-
cial attachés at foreign embassies to
help find strategic local partners.”
In addition, the Economic
Development Authority will use
STEP money to create a “virtual
mall” website. Vendors on the site
will sell VI-made products ranging
from food, lotions and candles to
yachts in 34 languages and to buyers
worldwide, according to Kean.
The deadline for enrollment in the
STEP program is Feb. 6. Applicants
must provide copies of the most
recent business license and a letter of
good standing from the Office of the
Lt. Governor ’s Division of
Corporations and Trademarks.
Applications can be hand-deliv-
ered to the Economic Development
Authority’s office on St. Thomas at
No. 5055 Norre Gade or on St. Croix
at No. 116 King St., Frederiksted.
Applications also can be sent by fax
to 777-8399, or via e-mail to
nmarchena@usvieda.org.
For questions about STEP applica-
tions, contact Kean at 714-1700.
— Contact reporter Amanda
Norris at 714-9104 or email
anorris@dailynews.vi.
What they gave us was an understanding of how the
U.S. export system works and support for everything
from marketing to opening up chains of
communication with the State Department’s
commercial attachés at foreign embassies to help
find strategic local partners.
— Richard Difede, president of Gold Coast Yachts
“
Monday, January 28, 2013
The Virgin Islands Daily News 11