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Port Houston celebrated the launch of its new Business Equity Division (BED).
The purpose of the BED is to boost the participation of minority and women-owned businesses after a study revealed that these firms were not frequently awarded contracts by the port.
Georgia consulting firm Griffin & Strong discovered that while minority and women-owned construction businesses comprise nearly 50% of construction firms in the Gulf Coast region, just 11% were awarded contracts by the port during the last half decade.
"Today is a historic day with the creation of @Port_Houston’s Business Equity Division," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a post to his Twitter account on July 22. "This division will have the ability to facilitate a vigorous race and gender conscious program that strengthens, support and expands contracting opportunities for MWSBE companies."
Some business owners are cautiously optimistic that the new decision could cause things to change in their industry.
“It gives me some hope," Towana Bryant, president of Trinity Freight Services, a Houston logistics company, said. "They have this new program, but will they successfully implement it? That’s what we have to wait and see if that is going to happen.”
The Asian Chamber of Commerce believed that the division's launch is in step with honoring Houston's diverse business community. They participated in a hybrid kickoff event for the Business Equity Division on July 22 that included speeches from Mayor Turner, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Port Commissioner Wendy Montoya-Cloonan and Port Houston Executive Director Roger Guenther.
Port Houston's goal is to award 30% of its contract dollars to woman or minority-owned businesses, but it does not have a set timetable for achieving this goal. In the past contractors have complained of going to networking events for the port and it not resulting in any work.