Proclamation 6815—Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1995

For citizens throughout the Nation, entrepreneurship is a proven gateway to economic empowerment. At its best, our free enterprise system works to ensure that all of our citizens have the opportunity to contribute fully to America's economic growth and to benefit fully from our economy's success. However, the road to entrepreneurial achievement is seldom easy. Those who undertake the journey must be talented, determined, and brave. But America has a history of rewarding risk-takers, and there is much to be gained in the attempt.

If this country is to continue to prosper in the years ahead, we must hold fast to the promise of minority enterprise development. Business growth in our minority communities creates wealth, encourages self-sufficiency, and generates jobs where they are needed. My Administration is working hard to strengthen all of our Nation's businesses, opening new domestic and international markets, stimulating the efficient use of developed but underutilized land in older cities and towns, and reducing the cost of borrowing for business start-ups and expansions. These innovative efforts are making an impact, and people throughout America are stepping forward to take advantage of the possibilities of investment.

This week plays an important part in our work to promote the growth of the minority business community. As we recognize America's outstanding minority business men and women, we honor their accomplishments and help spur them on to greater heights. Highlighting their success, this occasion touches even those who have not yet dreamed of starting their own businesses. We are all inspired by the example our entrepreneurs have set.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 24 through September 30, 1995, as "Minority Enterprise Development Week." I call on all Americans to commemorate this event with appropriate ceremonies and activities, joining together to recognize the contributions that minority entrepreneurs make every day to our national economic security.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twentieth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON