Tuesday, March 19One world for all

San Jose City Adds Vietnamese-American Small Business Advisor

By Sharon Simonson

Xuan Ha, former director of San Jose’s Vietnamese American Business Association, has joined the city of San Jose’s Small Business Ally Program as a small business coach. She speaks fluent Vietnamese.

Xuan Ha has joined the city of San Jose to help small business owners, including Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans, looking to start or expand their businesses in San Jose. (Photo courtesy city of San Jose)
Xuan Ha has joined the city of San Jose to help small business owners, including Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans, looking to start or expand their businesses in San Jose. (Photo courtesy city of San Jose)

The Business Ally program helps San Jose entrepreneurs find the best location and then navigate the city permit process to complete remodeling or other work including new business registration.

Immigrants own about half of San Jose’s 56,000 small businesses—those employing fewer than 35 people.

Vietnamese-Americans, including refugees, immigrants and their U.S.-born children, constitute the largest Asian population in the city of San Jose with 104,000 people, according to the most recent Census Bureau statistics. Seventy-five percent are foreign-born and nearly 60 percent “speak English less than very well.” 

While she was at the Vietnamese American Business Association, it promoted international trade and investment as well as networking and advocacy within the Vietnamese-American business community in California, Texas and Vietnam. The organization was previously named the Vietnamese American Entrepreneur Association. Xuan Ha can be reached at xuanloc.ha@sanjoseca.gov

 

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