09/30/16 Tae Chong, CEI / StartSmart
Posted by Dick Hall
Dave Putnam introduced Tae Chong, Business Counselor at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI).
Tae provides counseling through CEI's StartSmart Program, helping refugees and immigrants to start, strengthen, or expand their own small businesses. Tae is a longtime Portland resident and he has been actively involved in local and state issues regarding immigrants and refugees.
CEI is a driven lending institution with $1 billion lent in the last 40 years. Technical advising, through the StartSmart Program, has helped 1300 refugees, and 300 businesses.
The demographics:
Emerging Markets, Emerging Workforce:
There are 1 million foreign-born people living in Boston now.
Maine, the oldest state in the nation has an average age of 44.5 years.
By 2020, 1 in 4 will be over 65, with not enough workers to replace retirees. We have a large population bulge in the 50-65 age group.
The number of kids in school has been declining in the last five years 214,000 to 165,000.
Maine’s multicultural population is a pyramid with a large young base.
Across the country, the white median age is 42. The Hispanic, Asian multiracial populations are growing. By 2042, whites will be a minority.
Economic opportunities
Multicultural population size is the 5th largest financial group in the world. The growth from 1990 to 2016 has been 59.7%.
In Maine, Asian and Latino have added $400 million into the economy. They are the most entrepreneurial groups in Maine.
New Mainers contribute $1 billion to Maine’s economy
The media age is 27, with a high percentage of college education. Their rate is two times the average college graduation rate of all Maine.
If we want to retain and lure new Mainers, we need to be more welcoming than MA or CT.
What can we do to enhance economic development?
Support immigrant-owned businesses.
Mentor immigrant-owned businesses.
Volunteer at Portland Schools, Adult Ed, and support scholarships.
Meet and invite ethnic community based organizations.
Attend multicultural churches and festivals
For more information, go to www.ceimaine.org or
http://www.ceimaine.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CEI-Immigration-Report-2016-WEB-PAGES.pdf
(Photo: Maxwell Chikuta, Dave Putnam, Tae Chong, and Laura Young.)