[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 47 (Monday, November 29, 1999)]
[Pages 2429-2431]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Morning Session One of the Conference on Progressive 
Governance for the 21st Century in Florence

November 21, 1999

    Well, first of all, let me say that I think, Prime Minister D'Alema, 
the morning session is well-named. We are concerned about equality and 
opportunity in the new economy.
    Let us begin with the proposition that the new economy is powered by 
a revolution in technology, especially in information and 
telecommunications, and exponentially enhanced by the growing global 
trade. The new economy does best in a highly entrepreneurial environment 
where people with new ideas have access to capital and low barriers to 
establishing a growing business. More than in any previous time of 
economic expansion, job growth is disproportionately higher in the 
private, as opposed to the public, sector.
    Now the good news is that there is an extraordinary potential for 
the growth of jobs, businesses, and wealth. We have in the United States 
been blessed, for example, with a stock market that has more than 
tripled in the last 7 years. But this is not free of challenges, both 
within and among nations.
    Even though, for example, in our country we have the lowest poverty 
rate in 20 years, and the lowest poverty rate among households headed by 
single parents, principally women, in over 40 years, we know that there 
are the following problems with the new economy if you just have a 
laissez-faire policy.
    Number one, the skill gap among people with high levels of education 
and low levels will lead to even more dramatic income inequality.
    Number two, in a highly volatile environment where lots of jobs are 
being created and lots of jobs are being lost, it requires a special 
attention to the transition assistance needed to give people the skills 
and other support they need to move from one job to another.
    Number three, there will be people and places that are completely 
left behind; I mentioned this in my remarks last night. The United 
States has the lowest unemployment rate we've had in 30 years, but if 
you look at some of our inner-city neighborhoods, the remote mountain 
places in Appalachia, for example, the Mississippi Delta, the Native 
America, the American Indian reservations, you find unemployment rates 
anywhere from 3 to 12 times the national average.
    So if you wish to promote equality and opportunity, there must be a 
strategy, first, to close the skills gap, which means that there's a 
role for Government here. We have to spend more money, not less, than 
ever before on education. It needs to start sooner; it needs to last for 
a lifetime. And it needs to

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be focused much more rigorously on results, so that it's not just a 
question of spending money, but you're actually getting a higher return 
for the money that's being spent. Number two, there needs to be a system 
of lifetime learning for people in transition. You have people at the 
age of 50 changing jobs now. They can still do quite well, but they have 
to have help and support. Number three, there needs to be a system for 
getting capital to those people and places that are left behind.
    Let me just give you an example. One of the big debates we're having 
in America now is how long we can keep this economic expansion going. It 
is already the longest peacetime expansion in our history. In February, 
it will be the longest economic expansion in American history, including 
World War II. I believe that this is happening--I'd like to tell you 
it's because of my policies--I believe it's happening because we have 
underestimated the productivity gains of technology and underestimated 
the power of open borders and open trade to restrain inflation, which 
permits these economic expansions to go on if you have good policies.
    Now how can we continue to grow the economy? You can bring 
investment to the places that are left behind. So I have before the 
United States Congress, now, a proposal essentially to set up the 
equivalent in America of our Export-Import Bank and our Overseas Private 
Investment Corporation to give American investors the same incentives to 
invest in the poorest areas in America we give them to invest in the 
poorest areas of Latin America or Africa, not to take away the foreign 
incentives but to mirror them in the very poor areas of our country. I 
think this is something that all advanced countries should look at.
    Finally, let me say there is a big problem with the so-called 
digital divide. The people who have access to the Internet and 
technology have enormous advantages, and it has to be closed. We are now 
hooking up all of our classrooms to the Internet, and we should finish 
next year. But I think we should shoot for a goal in the developing 
countries, the developed countries, of having Internet access as 
complete as telephone access within a fixed number of years. It will do 
as much as anything else to reduce income inequality.
    Last point I want to make: There are not just problems in this 
economy dealing with equality and opportunity; there are opportunities, 
too, and let me just mention two.
    Number one, technology has permitted us to say, for the first time 
since the industrial revolution, it is no longer necessary to grow an 
economy to burn more greenhouse gases to burn up the atmosphere. It is 
now possible to grow an economy and actually use less greenhouse gases 
and put less strain on the economy. That opens up the opportunity not 
only to save the environment but to create literally millions of new 
jobs around the world.
    Number two, the Internet itself offers opportunities for people who 
don't have access to traditional jobs to make money. There is an 
American company that perhaps some of you have used, called eBay, and 
it's basically a place on the Internet where you can buy anything. It's 
like a great international market on the Internet. There are now over 
20,000 people, including a lot of people who are on welfare, who are 
making a living on eBay--making a living on eBay.
    So there are opportunities as well as problems in this economy. We 
should not be depressed about it. We should just realize that governance 
requires new policies.
    Mr. Prime Minister, you asked us to talk about the domestic issues 
first, and there are a whole lot of global issues I'd like to deal with, 
but this is what I would like to say about the domestic issues. We have 
to deal with more investment in education, more investment in transition 
aid, a strategy to get capital to people in places left behind, a 
strategy to close the digital divide. And we have to make the most of 
the new technologies, especially in the environmental areas, and the new 
opportunities for isolated people and places to make money because of 
the Internet, not in spite of it.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:45 a.m. in the Room of Five Hundred at 
the Palazzo Vecchio. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister 
Massimo D'Alema of Italy. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.

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