[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 36 (Monday, September 11, 2000)]
[Pages 2015-2017]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Leaders of African Nations in New York City

September 7, 2000

    Well, first of all, let me thank Congressman Jefferson. This 
reception was his idea, and I thank him for his work on it--and all the 
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus who helped him who are 
detained in Washington for votes this afternoon. I want to thank all the 
leaders of African nations who are here and the diplomats and the 
business leaders who have come.
    There's a simple purpose to this event. We want to say that Africa 
matters to America. Or as Reverend Jackson, my Special Envoy, was just 
saying, we don't see Africa as a continent of debtor nations; we see 
Africa as a credit bank for America's future, an opportunity for a real 
and genuine and lasting partnership.
    I just got back from Nigeria and Tanzania, where I was with some of 
you in Arusha. And that trip reminded me again of all the positive 
things that are out there to be built in the future. It also enabled me 
to say something no American President had ever been able to say: I was 
glad to go to Africa for the second time.
    But I think, and I hope and pray, that no future American President 
will ever not say that, that we will take it for granted that we should 
have a broad, comprehensive, in-depth, consistent relationship with 
Africa. We have a shared interest in making sure that the people of 
Africa seize their opportunities and work with us to build a common 
future.
    Of course, the governments of Africa have to lay the foundations--
the rule of law, a good climate for investment, open markets, and making 
national investments that broaden the economic base and provide benefits 
to ordinary people. These things will work.
    Last year the world's fastest growing economy was Mozambique, and 
Botswana was second. Nigeria turned a fiscal debt into a surplus. So 
that will work. But we must also reach out through our Export-Import 
Bank, our Overseas Private Investment Corporation, our Trade and 
Development Agency to encourage more American investment in Africa.
    We also should encourage the regional trade blocs to unite smaller 
economies into bigger economic units in more attractive markets. And as 
Bill Jefferson said, we're going to do our best to make the most of the 
Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, the trade act which the Congress 
passed earlier this year. When we fully implement it, Africa will have 
much greater access to American markets than any region in the world has 
to American markets outside North America, and I'm very proud of that.
    We are also working to bridge some of the other divides, helping 20 
African countries connect to the Internet, training more than 1,500 
government and civic institutions to use it. We know we have to do more 
in communications in rural Africa. There are some rural areas where 
there is less than one phone line for every 500 inhabitants.
    We don't want a digital divide between Africa and the rest of the 
world, but neither do we want a digital divide to develop within Africa 
itself, between cities that are connected and villages that are left 
out. So we will continue to do what we can for trade and technology. We 
know that is not enough.
    A year ago I announced that we would support a global effort on debt 
relief and that we would completely write off the debts of as many as 27 
African nations. Uganda has already used savings on debt payments to 
double its primary school enrollment--double. Senegal has used theirs to 
hire 2,000 teachers. Mozambique has used theirs to buy much-needed 
medicines.
    I asked Congressman Jefferson to go back after meeting with all 
these leaders to influence the Congress to give us the $435 million we 
need this year to fully fund our debt relief program this year and to 
continue to extend debt relief to other deserving countries who will 
take the savings and invest it in their people and their future.
    I also believe we should do more to promote education in Africa. I 
have launched a $300 million initiative, which I hope will be nothing 
more than a pilot program, to work with developing countries to provide 
free meals--nutritious breakfasts or lunches in school--so that parents 
will be encouraged to send 9 million more boys and girls to

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school in countries that desperately need to increase school enrollment.
    We estimate that if our friends around the world will join us and if 
we can cooperate with countries to deliver the food in an appropriate 
way and to make sure we don't interrupt local farm markets--we don't 
want to hurt local farmers anywhere--we estimate that for about $4 
billion worldwide, we could provide a nutritious meal in school to every 
child in every developing country in the entire world. That could change 
the face of the future for many African countries and many countries in 
Asia and Latin America, as well.
    Finally, we're trying to do more to fight infectious diseases, 
especially AIDS. I want to thank Sandy Thurman, my AIDS Coordinator, who 
is here, for all the work she and others in my administration have done 
to try to help Americans realize that this is a global crisis. Earlier 
this year, we declared that AIDS was a national security issue for 
America.
    There were some people who made fun of me when I did that--some 
people who said, ``What's the President doing? How can AIDS be a 
national security crisis?'' When you think about all the democracies we 
want to see do well in the 21st century and all the people who will lose 
their freedom because they can't even keep their people alive, it is 
quite clear that AIDS is, in fact, a national security challenge for the 
United States that we have to do more to meet.
    Now, what are we doing in America? We, again--Bill Jefferson is 
here--we're trying to get Congress to approve a $1 billion vaccine tax 
credit to give tax incentives to our big companies to develop vaccines 
that they otherwise would not develop because they know most of the 
people who need the medicine are not able to pay for it. So we are 
trying to cut the cost of developing it so they will still have a 
financial incentive to do it, and then, if they develop them, we'll find 
a way to pay for it and distribute it.
    Even as we insist, however, on vaccine research and research for a 
cure, we should remember that AIDS is 100 percent preventable. We need 
to do more with education and prevention programs and to break the 
silence. We have a chance to take on this human challenge together.
    One of the most moving experiences I have had as President--and I 
have been through a lot of interesting and profoundly emotional 
experiences the last 8 years--but one of the most moving things that's 
happened to me happened when we were just in Nigeria, and President 
Obasanjo and I went to this event in an auditorium with a lot of people 
to talk about what they were doing in Nigeria to try to prevent AIDS. So 
there were two speakers. The first speaker is a beautiful 16-year-old 
Nigerian girl who gets up and talks about what she's doing as a peer 
counselor to talk to her contemporaries to keep the children out of 
trouble. That was pretty good.
    Then this young man gets up. I think he must have been about 30. And 
he talked about how he fell in love with a woman who was HIV positive 
and how his family and her family didn't want them to get married, and 
about how their priest didn't want them to marry, and they were deeply 
religious people, and how their love was so strong, they finally 
convinced the priest that they ought to get married. And he finally 
convinced the parents that it was all right, and so they did. And then 
he became HIV positive. And then his wife became pregnant. And he had 
already lost one job because he was HIV positive, and he was desperate 
to find the money to get the medicine for his wife so that there could 
be a chance that his child would be born without the virus. And finally, 
he got the money. His wife took the medicine. The baby was born without 
the virus, and he basically was affirming the fact that he was glad he 
followed his heart, even though he contracted the virus. He was glad 
that he and his wife had had a child who was free of HIV, and he wanted 
the world to do more to get rid of this illness.
    And then the President of Nigeria brought his wife up on stage and 
embraced her in front of hundreds of people, and it was all over the 
press in Nigeria the next day. It changed the whole thinking of a nation 
about how to approach this disease, to treat the disease as the enemy 
but not the people who are gripped with it. It was an amazing encounter.
    So I just say to all of you, we're committed for the long run. We 
want to take on the

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great human challenges. We want to take on the great political 
challenges. There are some things that you will have to do, but I 
believe America is moving inexorably to be a much better partner over 
the long run for Africa. It is one of the things that I was determined 
to do when I became President. I am more determined today than I was. 
And I am more convinced today that it is not an act of charity. It is an 
act of enlightened self-interest for the world that we should be 
building together.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:50 p.m. at the Waldorf-Astoria. In his 
remarks, he referred to Rev. Jesse Jackson, the President's Special 
Envoy to Africa; President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria; Tayo 
Akimuwagun, peer educator, National Center for Women Development 
(Nigeria); and John Ibekwe, president, Nigerian Network of People Living 
With HIV/AIDS.