For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 20, 2001
Embargoed
Until Delivery Until 10 06 A.M. Edt Saturday, July 21, 2001 Radio Address of the President to the Nation the President Good Morning. as You Hear This, I AM in Genoa, Italy, at An Important Meeting of the World's Most Industrialized Nations And Russia. Our Focus This Year Is on the Poor and Struggling Nations of The World and What Prosperous Democracies Can Do to Help Them Build a Better
future.
This cause is the priority of the United
States' foreign policy. We're a wealthy nation with responsibilities
to help others. It is also in our best interest to do so,
because we benefit when we have strong and stable partners around the
world who trade with us and help keep the peace.
Our discussions here in Europe are
centered on some great goals. We want to spread the benefits
of free trade as far and as wide as possible. Free trade is the only
proven path out of poverty for developing nations. And when nations
are shut off from the world, their people pay a steep price.
Despite trade's proven track record for
lifting the lives of the poor, some still oppose it. They
seek to deny the poor and developing countries their best hope for
escaping poverty. Legitimate concerns about labor standards,
economic dislocation and the environment should be addressed, and will
be.
But the developing countries have no need
for protectionist policies that would condemn them to permanent
poverty. Yet, trade alone is not enough. Wealthy
nations must also work in true partnership with developing countries to
help them overcome obstacles to their development, such as illiteracy,
disease and unsustainable debt.
This is compassionate conservatism at an
international level, and it is the responsibility that comes with
freedom and prosperity. To advance literacy in the
developing world, I have proposed that the United States increase
funding for our international education assistance programs by nearly
20 percent. And we will lead a new effort to improve basic
education and teacher training in Africa.
We've proposed that the World Bank and
other development banks increase the share of their funding devoted to
education, and to tie the support more directly to clear measurable
results. And we have proposed that up to half of all the
funds provided by development banks to the poorest countries be
provided as grants rather than loans for education, health and human
needs.
Today, many poor nations are benefitting
from efforts to relieve them of the crippling burden of massive
debt. But debt relief is ultimately a short-term
fix. My proposal doesn't merely drop the debt, it helps stop
the debt.
A final item of business at our Genoa
summit is to launch a new global fund to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis. The U.S. contributes nearly $1 billion a year
annually to international efforts to combat AIDS and infectious
diseases, and we stand ready to contribute more to the global fund as
it demonstrates its success.
This is a time of great
opportunity. What some call globalization is in fact the
triumph of human liberty across national borders. We have
today the chance to prove that freedom can work not just in the new
world or old world, but in the whole world. Our great
challenge is to include all the world's poor in an expanding circle of
development throughout all the Americas and all of Asia and all of
Africa. Such a world will enjoy greater freedom and
prosperity, and is far more likely to be at peace.
Thank you for listening.
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