YSU’s EMI gets grant for $188K

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University’s Emerging Markets Initiative, designed to help students and Mahoning Valley businesses learn about and take advantage of opportunities in growing overseas markets, has received a $188,000 federal grant to expand the project.

With this award, the EMI has received three grants from the U.S. Department of Education over the past five years totaling nearly $550,000.

“This grant further cements YSU’s and the Williamson College of Business Administration’s leadership role in international business in Northeast Ohio,” said Betty Jo Licata, dean of WCBA, which operates the EMI.

Started in 2005, EMI is part of the YSU Center of Excellence in International Business, which also includes the Williamson Center of International Business and the Ohio Small Business Development Center at YSU.

“The Emerging Markets Initiative is a perfect example of the university’s and the college’s mission to serve students and the local community,” said Rangamohan Eunni, associate professor of management and co-director of the Emerging Markets Initiative. “The EMI provides the education and resources needed for our students and businesses to succeed in the ever-changing 21st century global business environment.”

EMI is designed to internationalize the WCBA’s curriculum, enhance the international knowledge and competencies of students and faculty and educate the Mahoning Valley business community about opportunities for international trade in emerging markets.

Eunni said the current focus of EMI is a group of fast-growing emerging economies called the BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and China. The BRIC economies together are forecast to become larger than the G-6 economies in less than 40 years, he said.

“These trends are important for the United States, and especially so to Mahoning Valley,” Eunni said. Though Ohio is the seventh-largest exporting state in the United States, accounting for more than $45 billion in exports, the Mahoning Valley’s share is less than 1 percent, Eunni said.

Excluding Canada and Mexico, Brazil and China account for the largest share of exports from Ohio, and together with India and Russia represent 20 percent of Ohio’s total exports.

Among the activities of the YSU Emerging Markets Initiatives are seminars for the local business community to learn about the importance of exploring opportunities in the BRIC economies and a new course on international business consulting that provides hands-on consulting experience to undergraduate business majors while working with and assisting businesses in the region to develop international expansion plans.

The courses, delivered in six-week sessions on Saturdays, will be open to YSU students as well as area business people.