[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 167 (Tuesday, August 27, 1996)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 44143-44144]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-22061]



[[Page 44141]]


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Part III





The President





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 Proclamation 6913--Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1996
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  Federal Register / Vol. 61, No. 167 / Tuesday, August 27, 1996 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 44143]]

                Proclamation 6913 of August 23, 1996

                
Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1996

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                As our Nation continues to surge forward in the 
                competitive arena of international business, minority 
                entrepreneurs are playing an increasingly important 
                role. In the new global economy, minority-owned 
                businesses represent a unique advantage for the United 
                States; the diversity of our national business 
                community is one of its main strengths. Behind this 
                success lies the daily work of thousands of minority 
                business men and women who are continuing to renew the 
                validity of the American Dream. Moreover, they are 
                showing that the Dream is strongest when all can 
                participate.

                These Americans have stepped forward to accept several 
                challenges: the challenge of opening economic 
                participation to all citizens; the challenge of 
                overcoming the under-representation of minorities in 
                business ownership and management; and the challenge of 
                creating jobs in the communities where they are needed 
                most. These minority entrepreneurs entered the 
                marketplace with no guarantees of success, and their 
                achievements have helped level the playing field for 
                others who wish to follow in their footsteps.

                Minority business leaders contribute to our country's 
                cultural and social heritage as well as to its economic 
                health. As business pioneers, they are valuable role 
                models to our youth, living heroes whose hard work and 
                self-empowerment are strong examples for others to 
                follow. These are the people whose work we celebrate 
                during this 14th annual observance of Minority 
                Enterprise Development Week. This year's observance is 
                particularly poignant. It comes just months after our 
                Nation lost Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and a group of 
                talented and dedicated Federal employees and American 
                business people in a tragic plane crash during a trade 
                mission to open commercial opportunities for American 
                businesses in Bosnia.

                Ron Brown worked hard to include minority business 
                interests in our Nation's business and economic 
                development policies, and as we carry forward his 
                legacy, it is our responsibility to ensure that all 
                Americans can see business ownership as more than just 
                a dream. Our future as a world economic power rests on 
                the notion that business ownership can be attained by 
                anyone willing to work toward that goal. Minority 
                Enterprise Development Week is a time to spotlight the 
                minority men and women who provide the goods, services, 
                and jobs that keep this Nation strong. These Americans 
                support their communities and inspire future 
                generations. They are confident and competent people 
                whose commercial accomplishments show them to be equal 
                to any fair competition, whether here or abroad.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim September 22 through 
                September 28, 1996, as Minority Enterprise Development 
                Week. I call on all citizens to commemorate this week 
                with appropriate ceremonies and activities, joining 
                together to recognize the contributions that minority 
                entrepreneurs make to our Nation's economy.

[[Page 44144]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and twenty-first.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 96-22061
Filed 8-26-96; 11:43 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P