Proclamation 5508—Minority Enterprise Development Week, 1986

America is a land of expanding economic opportunity in which each and every person can play a part based on talent and initiative. The openness and flexibility of our free market economy makes it unique among the countries of the world.

The spirit of our democracy affirms that unhindered opportunity for all Americans is essential to our economic well-being. That our citizens should be judged on the content of their character and be able to advance according to merit and achievement is an economic as well as a moral imperative.

To remain the leader in bringing new products and services to the marketplace, and to successfully compete with products made abroad, we must do everything in our power to continue providing the widest possible economic opportunity for all Americans. We must also continue expanding opportunities to ensure strong growth for minority businesses. These businesses are adding jobs to industries that only a few years ago barely existed. The many contributions made by these companies will help generate the managerial and technological developments and the skilled and experienced work force necessary to strengthen and build the American economy in an era of vigorous international competition.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week of October 5 through October 11, 1986, as Minority Enterprise Development Week, and I call upon all Americans to join together with minority business enterprises across the country in appropriate observances.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

RONALD REAGAN