[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 167 (Monday, August 30, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 47091-47092]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-22645]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 167 / Monday, August 30, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 47091]]

                Proclamation 7216 of August 25, 1999

                
Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1999

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Throughout our history, America's minority 
                entrepreneurs have contributed to the strength of our 
                economy and the quality of our national life. In the 
                18th and 19th centuries, as farmers and fur traders, 
                shipwrights and sea captains, barbers and bankers, they 
                forged better lives for themselves, their families, and 
                their neighbors. Often facing prejudice and 
                discrimination, they nonetheless succeeded in creating 
                businesses that energized their communities and helped 
                to build a dynamic new society.

                Today, minority business owners are branching out from 
                predominantly retail and service industries into the 
                fields of manufacturing, transportation, construction, 
                energy, and technology, helping to power the longest 
                peacetime economic expansion in our Nation's history. 
                Producing goods and services that generate new jobs and 
                spur investment, minority business owners have played a 
                vital role in building an economy with nearly 19 
                million new jobs, wages rising at twice the rate of 
                inflation, and the lowest peacetime unemployment rate 
                since 1957.

                All Americans can be proud that we have eliminated many 
                of the obstacles that in the past hindered minority 
                entrepreneurs from contributing the full value of their 
                talents to our society. However, while many minority 
                business owners are enjoying success, many still face 
                barriers that keep them from competing on a level 
                playing field. We must continue to build on the 
                combined efforts of the private sector and government 
                to ensure that minority-owned businesses have access to 
                the capital, customers, and services that will enable 
                them to succeed in high technology and other rapidly 
                growing sectors.

                Through my Administration's New Markets Initiative, we 
                are building partnerships between business and 
                government to encourage investments in areas that have 
                not attracted investments in the past: inner cities, 
                rural regions, and Indian reservations. We are striving 
                to ensure that our Nation's economic expansion--which 
                has benefited millions of Americans--will reach people 
                who have been left behind for decades.

                We are also working to help minority-owned firms 
                harness the enormous power of the Internet. The 
                Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at the 
                Department of Commerce, together with the Small 
                Business Administration (SBA), provide minority-owned 
                businesses with the tools they need to succeed in the 
                Information Age. These efforts range from interactive 
                educational courses on the fundamentals of E-commerce 
                to the creation of Phoenix-Opportunity, an automatic 
                electronic bid-matching system that notifies firms of 
                opportunities through the Internet. Similarly, SBA's 
                Pro-Net system provides contracting officers and small 
                and minority-owned businesses with an electronic 
                gateway to procurement opportunities and information.

                During Minority Enterprise Development Week, as we 
                honor the many minority businessmen and women whose 
                energy, spirit, and creativity have strengthened our 
                economy and enriched our country, let us rededicate 
                ourselves to nurturing the dreams and talents of all 
                Americans and to realizing the limitless possibilities 
                of our free enterprise system.

[[Page 47092]]

                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 19 through 
                September 25, 1999, as Minority Enterprise Development 
                Week, and I call on all Americans to join together with 
                minority business entrepreneurs across the country in 
                appropriate observances.

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

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 99-22645
Filed 8-27-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P