{"id":3657,"date":"2009-02-06T17:41:25","date_gmt":"2009-02-06T17:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/02\/06\/dragon-to-breath-fire-for-ethnic-minority-task-force\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T11:31:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T11:31:24","slug":"dragon-to-breath-fire-for-ethnic-minority-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/06\/dragon-to-breath-fire-for-ethnic-minority-task-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon to breath fire for Ethnic Minority Task Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>James Caan to co-chair Government\u2019s Task Force for BME Businesses <\/h3>\n<div><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"263\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"10\" width=\"180\" align=\"right\" vspace=\"3\" src=\"http:\/\/theasiantoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/JamesCaan_180x232.jpg\"\/>SERIAL entrepreneur and \u2018Dragons\u2019 Den\u2019 star James Caan has been appointed co-chair of the government\u2019s Ethnic Minorities Business Task Force, reporting directly to business secretary Lord Peter Mandelson.<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The Task Force, whose remit is to form strategy to assist BME-owned businesses across the UK, is the country\u2019s most influential team working on behalf of ethnic minorities in the business arena.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Caan made his name and fortune in the recruitment industry before moving into private equity as well as, more recently, starring in the BBC\u2019s prime time programme Dragons\u2019 Den. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Having grown up in London\u2019s Brick Lane in a family business setting but deciding to go it alone in a different sector, he has first-hand experience of both BME family business and growing a multi-million-pound company, making him ideally positioned for the Task Force.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cBME-owned businesses of all sizes contribute a very impressive \u00a330bn to \u00a340bn to the UK economy each year, and they\u2019re one of the key areas of the economy that\u2019s actually growing\u201d he said. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWe\u2019re talking about an estimated 210,000 businesses across the country, with a solid London base but also a very dynamic presence in the regions. There could be as many as 100,000 new BME businesses created over the next 12 months alone, and part of the Task Force\u2019s job will be to make sure Government support is communicated to the right people in the right way, encouraging these entrepreneurs as well as signposting very practical Government packages that are in place to help them \u2013 and the way that\u2019s communicated is very important too.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u201cGovernment support is provided across the economy and is by no means restricted to BME groups,\u201d he added, \u201cbut this particular Task Force is focussed on BME businesses, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ll be offering my insight and experience. It\u2019s an area I have a close knowledge of and one that\u2019s close to my heart.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Lord Mandelson welcomed Caan\u2019s appointment saying his \u201centrepreneurial expertise and business acumen will further build the Task Force\u2019s work in removing barriers for BME business owners.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Caan to co-chair Government\u2019s Task Force for BME Businesses SERIAL entrepreneur and \u2018Dragons\u2019 Den\u2019 star James Caan has been appointed co-chair of the government\u2019s Ethnic Minorities Business Task Force, reporting directly to business secretary Lord Peter Mandelson. &#13; The Task Force, whose remit is to form strategy to assist BME-owned businesses across the UK, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}