Friday, April 3, 2015

UOG President Visits RMI SBDC


By: Anel Philimon
SBDC Director/Business Advisor
RMI SBDC

 

UOG President Dr. Robert Underwood (left) is photographed
with RMI SBDC Director Anel Philimon.
University of Guam President Dr. Robert A. Underwood recently visited the Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, from January 16th to 20th, 2015. In addition to his visits to other government ministries and agencies which included the College of the Marshall Islands, Dr. Underwood also visited the RMI SBDC center on January 19, 2015. The center is hosted by the Ministry of Resources and Development in partnership with the University of Guam (UOG) Pacific Islands SBDC Network. He learned more about the RMI SBDC and that there are only two staff operating the center, with one being the office manager and the other being the center director.

 

UOG President Dr. Robert Underwood is photographed with
RMI SBDC Office Manager Leeno Aikuij.
Dr. Underwood was interested in learning how the RMI SBDC is doing in terms of meeting and complying with its objectives and goals as stated in the signed MOU between the University of Guam Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center Network (PISBDCN) in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Ministry of Resources and Development on behalf of the government of the Marshall Islands.  He was happy to learn that like the other six SBDC centers throughout the region that are part of UOG PISBDCN, our goals and objectives were successfully and satisfactorily being met.

Lastly, Dr. Underwood mentioned that he will ask representatives of the Bank of Guam about their Marshall Islands activities and encourage more interest.  One last laugh that we shared with each other before he departed arose from the last lesson he learned in regard to how many coconuts it takes to make 100 pound bag of copra.  He was surprised to learn that it takes 300 coconuts to make 100 pounds of copra!