    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 28, 1998]
    [Pages 466-469]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Opening of the Ronald H. Brown Commercial Center in
    Johannesburg, South Africa
    March 28, 1998

        Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Motlana, for
    the wonderful introduction, for the extraordinary example of your
    career--physician to President Mandela, leader in the struggle for South
    Africa's freedom, and most recently, one of the most successful
    businessmen in the new South Africa.
        Thank you, Secretary Daley, Congressman
    Rangel, Secretary Herman, Secretary Slater. To our
    ambassadors, Mr. Berger, Reverend
    Jackson; to the Members of Congress and the
    American business leaders here today. Minister Manuel, to Millard Arnold, thank
    you for all the work you did on this. And to all the members of the
    South African community who are here, thank you for what you're doing to
    build a strong South Africa and to build the bonds of commerce between
    our two nations.
        Let me also say I'm pleased that a young member of my White House
    staff, born in Johannesburg, Russell Horwitz, is here today with his grandparents,
    Maurice and Phyllis Goldstein. But I'm especially pleased that Alma
    Brown is here.
        This has been an incredible trip to Africa, a trip which I was urged
    to make by Ron Brown, starting before I became President. And I was just
    sitting here thinking that after all this time, Ron Brown can still draw
    a crowd. [Laughter]
        This has been a magical tour of this magnificent continent, and in
    each place, I've thought about Ron and how he would have reacted to
    seeing a half a million people in Ghana; to talking to the President of
    Uganda, first, about the possibility of an American investment running
    into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and then walking into a little
    village and talking to women who got loans of $50 to start their own
    business; meeting with the survivors of the Rwandan genocide; coming
    here, and all the

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    magnificent things that have happened at the Maphanzela School today and
    at the Peterson Memorial in Soweto. This has been an incredible trip.
        And in so many ways, it was inspired by the vision that Ron Brown
    had. Ron said that in this new era, and I quote, ``Business
    opportunities in South Africa, once constricted by politics and
    struggle, will expand. If we are fortunate, we will see the rooting of
    democracy and free economy whose branches will soon spread, so that
    other African nations would also benefit.'' We are here to dedicate a
    center in honor of Ron Brown, to commerce, but also to bear witness that
    his vision is coming true.
        As Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown relentlessly promoted the idea
    that American businesses could help themselves while helping to support
    growth and opportunity and freedom in the rest of the world. He believed
    that assistance was still needed for developing nations but that self-
    perpetuating prosperity would never occur until we also had substantial
    amounts of trade and investment. Five times Ron Brown came to Africa to
    do business, to create opportunities for Americans and for Africans. He
    came at the right time, South Africa emerging and all around the
    continent a new Africa taking shape, increasingly open to free markets,
    democracy, human rights.
        Today, enterprising governments and entrepreneurs are taking
    Africa's future into their own hands, opening markets, privatizing
    industry, stabilizing currency, reducing inflation, and creating jobs.
    Small businesses are sprouting in cities and villages. Modern
    telecommunication systems are spreading. There are now 15 African stock
    markets, and 5 more in the works. Average economic growth on this
    continent has been 5 percent, with some countries as high as 10. Our
    trade with Africa is 20 percent greater than our trade with all the
    former Soviet Union. It supports 100,000 American jobs. The average
    annual return on investment--I hope they're listening back in America--
    the average annual return on investment is 30 percent. This is a good
    deal, folks.
        But there is more to do. Nearly 700 million people live in sub-
    Saharan Africa, but only about one percent of our trade and one percent
    of our direct foreign investment is in Africa. There is new thinking in
    America and in Africa about how we can do better by building genuine
    partnerships, partnerships with business owners who respect workers and
    workers who respect their companies; with governments that respect
    entrepreneurs and businesses that accept laws necessary to protect
    workers, consumers, and the environment; and businesses that
    increasingly will accept responsibility for playing a role in solving
    the social problems of their nations; and trade and investment across
    borders built on common interests and mutual respect. Mutual respect and
    shared benefit, these are the foundations Ron Brown laid for our
    partnership.
        As he well understood, and I reaffirm today, a new partnership in
    trade and investment should not come at the expense of development
    assistance when it is plainly still needed. Trade cannot replace aid
    when there is still so much poverty, flooding, encroaching deserts,
    drought, violence, threatened food supplies, malaria, AIDS, and other
    diseases, with literacy below 50 percent in many nations, because
    economies and businesses and individual workers cannot fulfill their
    potential when too many people cannot read or are hungry or ill. I will
    work with our Congress to restore our development assistance to Africa
    to its historic high level, but we must build on it with trade and
    investment.
        Nine months ago in Washington I announced our new plan, the
    Partnership for Economic Growth and Opportunity With Africa, intended to
    leverage the work of other industrialized countries, international
    institutions, and the nations and people of Africa, itself. Our Congress
    is now moving forward with legislation to forward that initiative.
    Already it has passed our House of Representatives; soon, I hope, our
    Senate will pass it as well. Among the Members of the congressional
    delegation with me today, there are four of the bill's greatest
    proponents: Congressman Rangel and
    Congressman Royce, Congressman
    McDermott, Congressman Jefferson, along with Congressman Crane, who is not here, and the other Members of the
    congressional delegation that are here. Let me thank them for their hard
    work and urge them to go get the Senate to follow suit.
        The plan we bring has five elements. First, we offer all African
    nations greater access to our markets. African countries aggressively
    pursuing economic reforms will be able to export almost 50 percent more
    products to America duty-free. In the future, we're prepared to
    negotiate free-trade agreements with strong-performing, growth-oriented
    economies, including

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    at appropriate times with the countries in this region.
        Under our plan, all African nations will benefit. Those with the
    greatest commitment to reform to unlocking the potential of their people
    will benefit the most, whether they are the richest in Africa or the
    poorest. Our bonds will grow based not on wealth but on will, the will
    to pursue political and economic change so that everyone may have a role
    in the progress of tomorrow.
        Second, we will target our assistance so that African nations can
    reform their economies to take advantage of the new opportunities. This
    means helping countries with creative approaches to finance, supporting
    the progress of regional markets, encouraging African entrepreneurs to
    look for new opportunities.
        In conjunction with the Ron Brown Foundation, we will help to
    establish an endowment through the Ron Brown Center to help young
    Africans to pursue internships with American companies to gain technical
    expertise in commerce, trade, and finance. We've named a new high-level
    trade representative whose only job is to deepen trade with Africa, Rosa
    Whitaker. Rosa, where are you? Stand up there.
    Thank you. [Applause] And I've asked Congress for another $30 million
    this year to fund support programs for this endeavor.
        Third, we are working to spur private investment. Our Overseas
    Private Investment Corporation has established three funds to help
    ventures be financed in Africa. The newest of these will provide up to
    $500 million for investments in roads, bridges, and ports, as well as
    microenterprise and women-owned businesses, to facilitate economic
    opportunity. And to serve as the hub for American investors interested
    in Africa, there is a new commercial center in which we are gathered.
    That's what we're here for. And let me say it again: The only name that
    this center could have is the Ron Brown Center.
        Fourth, with our wealthy partners in the G-7, we have secured a
    commitment from the World Bank to increase lending to Africa by as much
    as $1.1 billion in the coming year, with a focus on reforming countries.
    We want to speed debt relief to the Highly Indebted Poorest Countries
    program, which is now helping countries get out from under the crushing
    debt burdens that prevent growth. And I'll raise at the next G-7 meeting
    in England early in May the concerns that I've heard on this trip from
    African leaders about the debt issue. I've also asked our Congress for
    enough debt relief funding this year to wipe out all bilateral
    concessional debt for the fastest reforming poor nations.
        In total, our budget request this year would permit up to $1.6
    billion in bilateral debt relief for Africa. I challenge others in the
    industrial world to offer more debt relief so that we can free up
    resources for health, education, and sustainable growth. And let me say
    again to the Americans back home, this is not charity; this is
    enlightened self-interest. It is good for American business, the
    American economy, and American jobs to have a sensible growth policy.
        Finally, because of the growing importance of our economic ties to
    Africa, I intend to invite leaders of reforming nations to a summit
    meeting in Washington so that we can lay specific plans to follow up on
    this trip and the announcements I have made on it. We will also invite
    the trade, finance, and foreign ministers to meet with their American
    counterparts every year to advance the cause of modernization and
    reform.
        Ron Brown understood and the leaders of democratic Africa understand
    that nations cannot become economic powers unless their people are
    empowered, unless citizens are free to speak their mind and create,
    unless there is equality and the rule of law and what the experts call
    transparency. The African leaders have put a premium on improving
    government accountability and attacking corruption and other barriers to
    doing business. Those who have done that will be richly rewarded in the
    global marketplace. The United States shares these goals, and we intend
    to work with African leaders who want to make progress on them.
        Taken together, the provisions of our plan--trade benefits,
    technical and continued development assistance, support for private
    investment, increased financing and debt relief, and high-level
    consultations to make sure there is followup--and this trip is not a
    one-shot event--these will provide an environment in which private
    enterprise, African and American, will thrive, creating jobs and
    prosperity. This is a good thing for the American people and for
    American business. It is a good thing for Africa.
        Let me also say that nothing we do can supplant the important,
    essential efforts that African leaders--not just political leaders but
    business

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    leaders--take for themselves. We must do more to educate all the
    children, to provide decent shelter, to provide decent health care. We
    must do more to work together to solve the continuing problems in every
    society on this continent.
        Nothing the American people can do will replace your efforts, but I
    have seen the energy, the determination, and the courage of the people
    in every country I have visited. They are worthy of our best efforts at
    partnership, and we intend to give it to them.
        The progress we make together is the best way possible to honor the
    legacy of Ron Brown. He died in the service of his country on one of
    these missions to a war-torn country in the hope of making peace. He
    believed that economic progress was a moral good if it was fairly shared
    and everyone had a chance to live out their dreams and fulfill their
    aspirations. He understood that the economy was about more than a few
    people making money. It was about organizing free people so that they
    could put their talents to work to help a society lift itself up, to
    solve problems and seize opportunities, and make life more meaningful
    and more enjoyable.
        He was a bold thinker, a brilliant strategist, a devoted public
    servant, a good father and husband, and he was a terrific friend. I miss
    him terribly at this moment. But I cannot imagine a more fitting tribute
    to a man who proved that the Commerce Department could be an engine of
    growth and opportunity at home and abroad, who accepted my challenge to
    take a moribund agency and put it at the center of our economic policy,
    of our foreign policy, and of America's future in the world. He did his
    job well. I hope that when we leave here, we can do our job just as well
    so that this center will be a fitting, lasting legacy.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:42 p.m. in the courtyard. In his remarks,
    he referred to Dr. Nthatho Motlana, who introduced the President;
    Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel of South Africa; Rev. Jesse Jackson,
    President's Special Envoy for Africa; Millard W. Arnold, Minister-
    Counselor, U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service; Alma Brown, chair,
    Ronald H. Brown Foundation, and widow of Ron Brown; and Rosa Whitaker,
    Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa. A tape was not available
    for verification of the content of these remarks.