[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
[Pages 1274-1277]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at the Conference on 
Progressive Governance for the 21st Century in Berlin, Germany

June 3, 2000

    President Clinton.  Thank you very much. First of all, I would like 
to, I think, speak for all of us in thanking Chancellor Schroeder

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for this remarkable meeting and the communique which is coming out of 
our meeting. It's, I think, a fair statement of the way we view the 21st 
century world and what our responsibilities and opportunities are in it.
    There is a consensus among us that we face, in the globalized 
information society, great opportunities and great challenges; that we 
want economic growth and social justice; that the countries around this 
table, because of their size differences, their continental differences, 
their developmental differences, face particular challenges; but that 
there are things we can do to help each other and to help our own 
people.
    We talked specifically about economic empowerment, about education, 
about closing the digital divide, about the importance of reducing 
income inequality as a result of the globalization. We talked about the 
importance of a global initiative to reduce disease and poverty. We 
talked about climate change, and we talked a good deal about the 
importance of reaffirming our common humanity in the midst of the racial 
and ethnic and religious tensions that still dominate too much of the 
world's conflicts and are present, to some degree, in every one of our 
countries.
    We did agree, as the Chancellor said, to set up a network of our 
people to work together to identify specific challenges and come up with 
specific responses to them, so that we can now move from the more 
theoretical level of our discussions to concrete suggestions that will 
be helpful and could actually improve the lives of the people we 
represent.
    And finally, let me say we agreed that those of us who are members 
will emphasize a lot of these concerns at the coming G-8 meeting in 
Okinawa, where we expect to see a real emphasis on, in particular, on 
three things we talked about today: on spreading educational 
opportunities in the developing world; on closing the digital divide; 
and on a major effort by the developed countries to increase our 
response to disease, particularly to HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria.
    So this was a very good meeting. And Chancellor, again I thank you, 
and I, for one, learned a lot, and I think it was very much worth the 
effort that you made to put it on.

 [At this point, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany began the 
question-and-answer session of the conference. A participant asked if 
and when another meeting was scheduled and if the group would stay 
together regardless of election results. The Chancellor stated that the 
group was indissoluble and has scheduled another meeting in July.]

    Q.  Mr. President, yesterday the Chancellor called you a true 
European. As a true European, can you tell us where you think Europe 
should be moving? Should Europe be moving to become a United States of 
Europe; should it becoming a kind of federal state? Is that what it 
should be doing, or should it be a rather looser confederation of 
nation-states? [Laughter]
    President Clinton.  Well, I'm also a true democrat, which means I 
believe people should make their own decisions--[laughter]--about their 
lives.
    Let me say, as I said yesterday in Aachen, I have strongly supported 
the cause of European union. I think that what has been done so far is a 
plus. I think that more members will be added to the Union, and I think 
that is a good thing. You already have a common currency and a forum for 
resolving common concerns.
    Whether the Union will grow tighter, as well as larger, I can't say. 
That's a decision you have to make. And my guess is that now that you 
have a framework that's plainly working economically and politically, 
that those decisions will be made over a longer period of time and that 
for the next few years you'll be at least as concerned about how many 
other countries should be let in. But it's entirely a decision for 
Europe to make. The United States will support you whatever you do as 
long as we continue to share values and work together and deal with the 
kind of questions we're discussing today.
    Q.  To President Clinton, how do you view the situation in Latin 
America? And I'd like to know how you can see the principles you're 
advocating here coming about in Latin American countries with the 
difficulties facing democracy there at the moment.
    Thank you.
    President Clinton.  Well, first, I think that all the people here 
who are not from Latin America should know that every country but

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one is a democracy; that there has been an enormous amount of economic 
and political reform in Latin America in the last decade; but that 
because of the rise of narcotraffickers and terrorist activities in 
Colombia and in other countries, democracy is under great strain in 
Latin America.
    And my belief is that we should do everything we can to support the 
elected governments and democratic tendencies. We should make sure that 
we do whatever we can to see that the economies work for ordinary 
citizens, that there is a face on Latin America's part of the global 
economy, and that we try to strengthen those governments that are under 
particular stress, which is why I've done what I could to persuade our 
Congress to help Colombia and the other countries in the Andean regions 
to deal with the combined impacts of the narcotraffickers and the civil 
wars in the region.
    Perhaps the Latin American Presidents here might have a better 
insight. But I think the fact that we have the Presidents of Brazil, 
Argentina, and Chile here, I think, has been a big addition to the 
quality of our discussions because of the particular challenges facing 
Latin America at this time.

[President Fernando Cardoso of Brazil and President Fernando De La Rua 
of Argentina commented on democracy in Latin America.]

    Q.  Mr. President, you said that globalization should be given a new 
human face. What was striking was that the term ``Third Way'' wasn't 
used at this conference; progressive governance was the motto of this 
conference. Is this a turning point for future meetings of the center-
left?
    President Clinton.  I hope not, because I believe that, to me, it 
does reflect the Third Way. But, you know, that term, ``the Third Way,'' 
is fairly closely identified with our administration and with what Prime 
Minister Blair has done in Great Britain. And I think this idea of 
progressive governance is perhaps less of a political slogan and more of 
a description of what it is we're all trying to do.
    But essentially, I think what unites us is, we believe in the 
positive possibilities of a globalized information economy. And we know 
we have to have responsible economic policies to make the private 
markets work, but we don't believe that's enough. We don't believe you 
can have social justice and deal with all these other challenges we face 
unless you have effective, progressive governance that makes the most of 
the new economy and deals with its rough edges and difficulties as well. 
I think that's so--I think, in that sense, progressive governance 
describes what we're trying to do. We don't believe in just laissez-
faire economics, but we don't believe that government alone can solve 
these problems or ignore the importance of economic performance. So what 
we want is progressive governance to deal with the opportunities and 
challenges that are out there.
    I think it is a fair description of what we're about, and it is 
perhaps more inclusive of all the countries here represented than the 
Third Way. I like the Third Way because it's sort of easy to remember. 
[Laughter] But I think that far more important than the labels are the 
substance, and I think that's what has really bound us together here 
today is the substance of what we're about.

[Chancellor Schroeder commented that the absence of Prime Minister Tony 
Blair of the United Kingdom was due to the birth of his child rather 
than to differences of substance.]

    The President.  Progressive governance and the Third Way are pro-
family. [Laughter]
    Chancellor Schroeder.  One last question, please.
    Q.  Mr. Clinton, I'd like to ask you, what is your view of how the 
Internet should be used as a tool for strengthening democracy and for 
the education of the developing countries and strengthening democracy in 
countries like China or other countries where this is a problem, instead 
of being used as a tool to spread destructive information? How should 
you enforce that tool? And what is the role for countries that are far 
ahead in this area, like Sweden and the United States, for example?
    President Clinton.  Well, first, I think that we should recognize 
what an enormous potential the Internet has for bridging economic, 
educational, and social divides, not only in the developing world but in 
the poorest areas of developed countries, because it

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collapses time and space and allows access to information that was 
previously unthinkable for people in difficult situations.
    Prime Minister Chretien talked about how he had all the Eskimo 
villages in northern Canada connected to the Internet. That has enormous 
health implications, enormous educational implications, and my guess is, 
economic implications.
    So to specifically answer your question, I'll give you just three 
examples of things I think we ought to be emphasizing. I believe we 
ought to try to have Internet connections with printers in all the 
poorest villages where we're trying to get children into schools and 
give them modern education, because--for example, the entire 
Encyclopedia Britannica is now on the Internet. And if you have a 
printer and a computer in a poor village, you don't have to be able to 
afford textbooks anymore, and it's a far more efficient way for 
government to spread universal information. So that's one example that's 
an education example.
    For an economic example, I think that all over the world we see 
economic empowerment initiatives. In Latin America, for example, there 
has been a lot of work to get native crafts--and also in African 
villages--out. I think there ought to be a systematic effort to use E-
commerce to market these things all over the world and increase the 
incomes of poor people in villages dramatically by the use of E-
commerce.
    The third thing, a political usage. In India, where I just visited, 
in several of the villages in several of the States in India, they're 
now providing government services over the Internet. In some places, 
they're more advanced than we are in the United States. I was in 
Hyderabad, where you can get 18 government services over the Internet, 
including a driver's license, so no one ever waits in line for it 
anymore. If anyone did that in America, they could be elected for life. 
[Laughter]
    So I think that--but far more important is, I saw a poor woman in a 
village who just had a baby go into the only public building in this 
village, to the village computer, where there was someone there who 
helped her operate it. And she called up the health department and got 
instructions, with very good software, very good visuals, about how she 
should care for this baby for the first 6 months. And I reviewed it--
it's just as good as anything she could get in the wealthiest community 
in America from the finest obstetrician--so that we're going to keep 
more babies alive because of the Internet.
    So those are three examples of things that I think we should be 
focused on. And those of us in the wealthier countries should be 
providing the money and the technical support for countries to do more 
of this, because it will move more people more quickly out of poverty, I 
think, than anything that's ever been out there, if we do it right.

 Note:  The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the 
Chancellery. In his remarks, he referred to President Eduardo Frei of 
Chile; and Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada. The transcript 
released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included the remarks 
of Chancellor Schroeder and Presidents Cardoso and De La Rua. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of these remarks.