    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2001, Book II)]
    [July 17, 2001]
    [Pages 856-859]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the World Bank
    July 17, 2001

        Thank you all very much. Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for your distinguished years. Thank
    you for your service. Thank you for your kind comments. I'm honored to
    be here today with the Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill--thank you for being here, Mr. Secretary--as well
    as our Trade Ambassador, Bob Zoellick. I appreciate the leadership that
    these two men have shown. Their steady advice, their standards, their
    adherence to principle make my job a lot easier.
        I also want to thank Jim Wolfensohn
    for not only the invitation to be here but for your traveling long
    distances to get here to hear this speech. He said he landed at 6
    o'clock this morning. Obviously, he'd never heard me give a speech
    before. [Laughter] But I do appreciate his leadership. I appreciate the
    fact that he's raised the profile of global poverty and has underscored
    the importance for erasing it. I'm proud of his leadership, and I'm
    proud of the folks that work here at the World Bank. And I want to thank
    you for coming to give me a chance to speak to you.
        Last month in Poland, I talked about Europe and America working in
    partnership to build a house of freedom, a house whose doors should be
    open to all of Europe's emerging democracies and a house whose windows
    should be open to help Europe and America see clearly their challenges
    and responsibilities in the rest of the world.
        My last trip to Europe focused mainly on opening the doors of
    freedom throughout Europe by enlarging NATO and the European Union.
    Tomorrow I will travel to Europe to meet with leaders of the world's
    most industrialized nations, as well as Russia, to discuss the
    developing world and its needs and the developed world and our duties.
        The needs are many and undeniable, and they are a challenge to our
    conscience and to complacency. A world where some live in comfort and
    plenty while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day

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    is neither just nor stable. As we recognize this great need, we can also
    recognize even greater promise.
        World poverty is ancient, yet the hope of real progress against
    poverty is new. Vast regions and nations from Chile to Thailand are
    escaping the bonds of poverty and oppression by embracing markets and
    trade and new technologies. What some call globalization is, in fact,
    the triumph of human liberty stretching across national borders. And it
    holds the promise of delivering billions of the world's citizens from
    disease and hunger and want. This is a great and noble prospect, that
    freedom can work not just in the New World or the Old World but in all
    the world.
        We have, today, the opportunity to include all the world's poor in
    an expanding circle of development, throughout all the Americas, all of
    Asia, and all of Africa. This is a great moral challenge, what Pope John
    Paul II called placing the freedom of the market in the service of human
    freedom in its totality. Our willingness to recognize that with freedom
    comes great responsibility, especially for the least among us, may take
    the measure of the 21st century.
        This cause is a priority of the United States foreign policy,
    because we do recognize our responsibilities and because having strong
    and stable nations as neighbors in the world is in our own best
    interests.
        In centuries past, strong nations often wanted weak neighbors to
    dominate. In our age, strong nations must recognize the benefits of
    successful partners around the world. Strong partners export their
    products, not their problems. Conquering poverty creates new customers.
    And a world that is more free and more prosperous is also a world much
    more likely to remain at peace.
        To build this better world, we must be guided by three great goals.
    First, America and her friends and allies must pursue policies to keep
    the peace and promote prosperity. The United States and her allies will
    pursue a balance of world power that favors human freedom.
        This requires a new strategic framework that moves beyond cold war
    doctrines and addresses the threats of a new century, such as
    cyberterrorism, weapons of mass destruction, missiles in the hands of
    those for whom terror and blackmail are a very way of life. These
    threats have the potential to destabilize freedom and progress, and we
    will not permit it.
        Prosperity depends on a stable and peaceful world. Global prosperity
    also depends on the world's economic powers keeping our economic houses
    in order. We all must pursue pro-growth policies that encourage greater
    productivity, reduce tax burdens, while maintaining fiscal
    responsibility and stable prices.
        Our second goal is to ignite a new era of global economic growth
    through a world trading system that is dramatically more open and more
    free. One of the most important objectives of my meetings with other G-7
    leaders in Italy will be to secure their strong endorsement for a launch
    of a new round of global trade negotiations later this year.
        And at home, one of my most important legislative priorities will be
    to secure from Congress trade promotion authority that five other
    Presidents have had, an authority necessary so that when our United
    States enters into agreement, the countries with whom we've agreed to
    will understand we mean business. It's time for Congress to act.
        Free trade applies the power of markets to the needs of the poor. We
    know that nations that open their economies to the benefits of trade are
    more successful in climbing out of poverty. We know that giving
    developing countries greater access to world markets can quickly and
    dramatically raise investment levels and incomes. We also know that free
    trade encourages the habits of liberty that sustain freedom over the
    long haul. That is why I applaud the

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    World Bank's leadership in helping countries build the institutions and
    expertise they need to benefit from trade.
        Despite trade's proven track record for lifting the lives of the
    poor, organizers of the summit expect many people to take to the streets
    later this week in Italy to try to stop our progress. They seek to shut
    down meetings because they want to shut down free trade. I respect the
    right to peaceful expression, but make no mistake, those who protest
    free trade are no friends of the poor. Those who protest free trade seek
    to deny them their best hope for escaping poverty.
        Legitimate concerns about labor standards, the environment, economic
    dislocation should be and will be addressed. But we must reject a
    protectionism that blocks the path of prosperity for developing
    countries. We must reject policies that would condemn them to permanent
    poverty. As my friend the former President of Mexico, Ernesto
    Zedillo, said, the protesters seem strangely
    determined to save the developing world from development.
        Our third goal must be to work in true partnership with developing
    countries to remove the huge obstacles to development, to help them
    fight illiteracy, disease, unsustainable debt. This is compassionate
    conservatism at an international level. And it's the responsibility that
    comes with freedom and prosperity.
        Already, 23 of the world's poorest nations are benefiting from
    efforts to relieve them of the crippling burden of massive debt. These
    nations have committed themselves to economic reform and to channeling
    the savings from debt relief into health and education. The United
    States has been and will continue to be a world leader on responsible
    debt relief.
        The developed nations must also increase our commitment to help
    educate people throughout the world. Literacy and learning are the
    foundation of democracy and development. That is why I propose the
    United States increase funding for our education assistance programs by
    nearly 20 percent. Today I'm directing the Secretary of State and the
    Administrator of the Agency for International Development to develop an
    initiative to improve basic education and teacher training in Africa,
    where some countries are expected to lose 10 percent or more of their
    teachers to AIDS in the next 5 years.
        For its part, the World Bank and the other development banks must,
    as Secretary O'Neill has noted, focus on
    raising productivity in developing nations, especially through
    investments in education. Yet, only about 7 percent of World Bank
    resources are devoted to education. Moreover, these funds are provided
    as loans that must be repaid and often times aren't. Today I call on all
    multilateral development banks to increase the share of their funding
    devoted to education and to tie support more directly to clear and
    measurable results.
        I also propose the World Bank and other development banks
    dramatically increase the share of their funding provided as grants
    rather than loans to the poorest countries. Specifically, I propose that
    up to 50 percent of the funds provided by the development banks to the
    poorest countries be provided as grants for education, health,
    nutrition, water supply, sanitation, and other human needs, which will
    be a major step forward. Debt relief is really a short-term fix. The
    proposal today doesn't merely drop the debt; it helps stop the debt.
        The world also needs to begin realizing the enormous potential of
    biotechnology to help end hunger. The U.N. has recently reported
    biotechnology can dramatically improve crop yields in developing
    countries while using fewer pesticides and less water. We need to move
    forward based on sound science to bring these benefits to the 800
    million people, including 300 million children, who still suffer from
    hunger and malnutrition.
        Finally, the Genoa Summit will formally launch a new global fund to
    combat HIV/

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    AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. The United States was the first to
    announce our contribution to this fund, originally called for by U.N.
    Secretary-General Kofi Annan. We are proud to
    have been a leader in developing the fund's structure and its focus on
    prevention with a broad strategy that includes treatment and care.
        And I'm proud that our country contributes nearly $1 billion
    annually to international efforts to combat AIDS and infectious
    diseases. I might remind folks, that's more than twice the amount of the
    second largest donor. We stand ready to commit more to the global fund
    when it demonstrates success.
        In all these areas--health, education, hunger, and debt--America is
    committed to walking alongside leaders and nations that are traveling
    the hard but rewarding path of political and economic reform, nations
    that are committed to rooting out cronyism and corruption, nations that
    are committed to building the institutions of freedom and good
    government.
        In 1950, at the height of the cold war, John Foster Dulles issued a
    promise to the people of South Korea. ``You're not alone,'' he said.
    ``You'll never be alone so long as you continue to play worthily your
    part in the great design of human freedom.'' Fifty years since, our
    circumstances have changed beyond recognition. The world is no longer
    divided into armed camps. Democracy has become a seed on the wind,
    taking root in many nations. So much has changed, yet America's
    commitment is still the same.
        To all nations promoting democratic government and the rule of law
    so that trade and aid can succeed, you're not alone. To all nations
    tearing down the walls of suspicion and isolation and building ties of
    trade and trust, you're not alone. And to all nations who are willing to
    stake their future on the global progress of liberty, you will never be
    alone. This is my Nation's pledge, a pledge I will keep.
        Thank you for having me.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:40 a.m. in the Preston Auditorium at the
    World Bank. In his remarks, he referred to James D. Wolfensohn,
    president, World Bank Group.