Your invitation was gratifying for another reason. It indicates you are aware of one of the most important aspects of the U.S. Agency for International Development - that we help create the conditions that foster trade and investment. In fact, we are furthering U.S. national interests when we promote economic growth in developing countries. People who have nothing do not make very good customers. To be good trading partners, countries must have something to trade and be able to buy from us.
Development assistance helps provide the tools to get new trading partners into the game.
The United States needs expanding markets to fuel our own growth. Exports accounted for only 13 percent of our economic activity as recently as 1980, but as we enter the year 2000, exports will account for about 30 percent. Developing countries have been the fastest growing markets in recent years, and represent the greatest potential for the new century. He was talking about American ideals, but he was also talking about good business. We are still guided by those principles, and by the Point Four Program that expanded U.S. foreign aid to include developing countries.