[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 14 (Monday, April 6, 1998)]
[Pages 534-537]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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, Russel 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

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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 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,

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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 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

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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 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; Jesse Jackson, 
President's Special Envoy for Africa; Millard W. Arnold, Minister-
Counsellor, U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service; and Alma Brown, chair, 
Ronald H. Brown Foundation, and widow of Ron Brown. A tape was not 
available for verification of the content of these remarks.