VENTURA : U.S. Official to Visit New Business Center

Patricia Saiki, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, will visit Ventura County today, trying to drum up interest in a recently opened small-business development center.

The center, which officially opened in August at Oxnard’s World Trade Center, offers taxpayer-funded counseling to small companies trying to break into export markets, said Tom Rainey, executive director of the California Central Coast World Trade Center Assn.

She will meet local business people during a reception at the Doubletree Hotel, 2055 Harbor Blvd. in Ventura between 5 and 7 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling the World Trade Center at 988-1406.