[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 34 (Monday, August 30, 1999)]
[Pages 1663-1664]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7216--Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1999

August 25, 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

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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.
    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., August 27, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on August 26, and it was published in the Federal Register on 
August 30.