Polynesians top minority group in starting Nevada businesses

Alana Roberts

Friday, July 29, 2005 | 9:58 a.m.

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders opened a greater percentage of businesses in Nevada from 1997 to 2002 than any other minority group, statistics from the Census Bureau indicate.

That group opened 90 percent more businesses in Nevada between 1997 and 2002 with 170 in 1997 and 323 in 2002. The group that followed most closely with 84 percent growth in the opening of businesses were Asians, who saw the number of businesses opened grow from 4,835 in 1997 to 8,884 in 2002.

The drastic rate of growth surprised James Yu, president of the Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce.

"That's quite alarming, I didn't realize there were that many," Yu said. "It's probably a combination of two factors; first of all we've been enjoying a tremendous amount of population growth. The Asian population has been really growing.

"The other factor probably is a lot of Asians are business-oriented people," Yu said. "Las Vegas has been seen throughout the country as one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. That brings a lot of Asians here looking for opportunities."

Nationwide, the number of businesses that opened between 1997 and 2002 grew by 10 percent from 20.8 million to 22.9 million. Meanwhile, the number of all businesses that opened in Nevada between 1997 and 2002 grew by 31 percent from 129,757 in 1997 to 169,520 in 2002.

The number of American Indians and Alaska Native-owned businesses opened in Nevada between 1997 and 2002 grew by 56 percent from 1,231 in 1997 and 1,915 in 2002; the number of black-owned businesses grew by 55 percent between 1997 and 2002 from 2,796 to 4,345; the number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew by 48 percent from 6,565 to 9,745 and the number of women-owned businesses opened between 1997 and 2002 grew by 43 percent from 33,311 to 47,706.

Dianne Fontes, president of the Nevada Minority Business Council, said the faster rate of growth of businesses opened by minorities in Nevada can be attributed to an awareness by larger companies that it is beneficial to work with minority-owned firms.

"Nevada is the gold rush of the 21st century in terms of business opportunities," Fontes said. "With the new resurgence of corporations paying attention to the minority population as a true player and a good business partner for them, when that wasn't the case even five years ago."