University of Hawai'i University Relations Media & Publications Honolulu, HI 96822	(808) 956-8856 Telephone (808) 956-3441 Facsimile ur@hawaii.edu E-Mail
For Immediate Release:	November 26, 1997
Contact: Robert Chase, (808) 974-7675

UH Small Business Development Center receives $4.7 million for Rural Program The University of Hawai'i's Small Business Development Center Network at Hilo recently received an additional $4.7 million in federal funding for its Rural Economic Transition Assistance-Hawai'i Program. Since its establishment in 1994, the program has received nearly $15 million from the U.S. Department of Defense. Administered by the Hawai'i SBDC Network under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the transition program supports rural economic development in recently impacted plantation communities throughout the state. The program provides grants, usually ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, to help create long-term agriculturally based businesses and jobs for displaced sugars workers, while promoting the establishment of diversified agricultural in Hawaii. Since 1994 the program has funded 44 projects and has helped more than 300 former sugar workers start their own business or gain quality employment in the target communities of the Hamakua Coast and Ka'u District of Big Island, the North Shore of O'ahu and Kaua'i. Program Director Robert Chase says there are 25 ongoing projects, which include such crops as ginger, papaya, alfalfa, banana, coffee and honey. The program has helped numerous former sugar workers start their own businesses. Chase says one of the most successful approaches has been through coordinating entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs oversee the establishment of new farms on former sugar lands, providing jobs and much-needed markets. Each grant lasts a year, yet Chase says the program creates lasting cooperatives between the entrepreneurial coordinators and former sugar workers that support the industry and improve Hawai'i's competitive position in the national and world market. The Hawai'i Island Economic Development Board, Inc., provides the SBDC Network with management assistance for the program. The SBDC Network, based at UH Hilo, provides services through four centers statewide.

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