RemarksOpening Remarks at the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateBenjamin Franklin RoomWashington, DCOctober 7, 2011
Well, good morning and welcome to the Benjamin Franklin Room here in the State Department. And I think this is a very appropriate place to be discussing the importance of creating jobs in our country and broadening the base of prosperity and keeping America’s edge in the world, because, of course, Franklin was the first of many things and in many respects he was an innovator and an entrepreneur. And so we’re here with him looking over our shoulders.I am delighted to welcome all of you here today and particularly to thank you for participating in the President’s Jobs Council work. I know that the Department of Commerce and other of our domestic agencies are fully engaged and focused, but I also know from the preliminary work that the Jobs Council has already done and the conversations that I’ve had with some of you, that we understand that growth at home depends on focus over our economic engagements with the rest of the world.
The three trade agreements that the President just sent to the Congress is a clear sign of our commitment to lead on economic issues, and I urge Congress to quickly pass them. There may have been some who wondered why would the Jobs Council meet at the State Department, and there are a number of answers to that. Billions of dollars in trade and investment cross our borders every single day, 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside of the United States, so I think you’d find little argument that we have a significant but untapped potential for job creation and economic growth that comes with attracting foreign investment to the United States to put Americans to work.
But to capitalize on that potential we have to have frank and open discussions among ourselves, and particularly with those of you who operate globally who make strategic investments every single day. We need to show not only that we are open for business, but to use every tool in our toolbox to attract it.
I want to thank Jeff Immelt and Antonio Perez in particular for their work on the upcoming Jobs and Competitiveness Council Report, which makes a strong case for establishing a comprehensive national investment initiative to make sure America is the world’s number one destination for investment.
I also want to thank Acting Commerce Secretary Blank and Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the State Department Bob Hormats, who have both been working very hard on this issue, along with Fred Hochberg from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and Elizabeth Littlefield from the Overseas Private Investment Council. And unfortunately, Elizabeth wasn’t able to join us, but what we’re doing with OPIC and what more we can do should be a part of this important conversation.
So let me now turn to Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. Many of you know that Secretary Blank is a distinguished economist, she has served in very high positions in our government before, including in the White House in the 1990s, and her leadership on the Select USA Initiative has enabled the Commerce Department to become a very effective partner with American business. So let me turn it over to Rebecca.
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Closing Remarks at the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateBenjamin Franklin RoomWashington, DCOctober 7, 2011
Well, Bob and I have listened very carefully to everything that you have said, and we find it both very validating, because these are the issues we’re focused on to play our role in trying to respond to, but also it is a great challenge that we will take up.
And let me just make a couple of points, starting with please continue to work with Under Secretary Hormats and with his great team in the economic bureaus of the State Department, and he’s got a lot to contribute on this. And I want to thank Secretary Blank for being here and being part of this important discussion, because I thought it was really helpful on a number of issues. We will make sure, Jeff, that you have all the data you need about what we’re doing on visas and what we need to be able to respond to the legitimate issues that people raise with us, and with some suggestions for changes that would make it easier for us to do what we all want to see done to ease particularly business travel.
Secondly, we will be looking to you to give us heads up on anything we can do to help around the world. We have over a thousand economic officers, over 400 locally employed economic staff at embassies around the world, over 200 employees here at the Economic Bureau in the Department. We’re pitching opportunities. We’re your advocates. We believe strongly that we can be a good partner to you, along with Commerce, but we can’t if we don’t know about it. So we have to have a good, constant flow of information about what we can respond to to be more helpful.
The other areas that are not directly within our authority, like infrastructure, national transportation in particular, immigration reform, corporate tax reform, we see the difference that a lot of this can and will make. So we can also be part of the chorus to say, look, this is something that we need to do as a country.
And finally, let me just echo – and I appreciate what Barry Johnson said – I just want to echo the need for public education and outreach. You cannot assume that there is much of a broad understanding of the challenges we face. There’s a great deal of anxiety and insecurity among Americans because of the economic situation, but I think we can do – and it’s not just a job for government. I very much appreciate the Jobs Council and I think the President made the right decision to bring in people to have this organized effort, but it’s not just what people at the highest levels of our government say. It really is important for all of you to be more vocal in making the case for these kinds of changes. And we will certainly back you up all the way.
So thank you all very much for being here this morning.
