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American Competitiveness For A Winning Future

The ability to compete is essential to America in today’s global environment. Distances are shorter, trading blocs reshaped and emerging countries leverage their market advantages. Despite the essence of rapidity and volatility, America continues to lead the world in exports, embraces the spirit of entrepreneurship and develops cutting edge technology. By transforming risks into victories, we are able to sustain viable economic growth, job creation and more effectively support our standard of living.

In an effort to ensure America remains the world’s most competitive and innovative leader, the Bush Administration believes that the public and private sectors must work in tandem. Consequently, Secretary of Commerce’s Carlos Gutierrez headlined the Inaugural National Summit on American Competitiveness this month. This all-day comprehensive program served as the platform for the nation’s leaders to convene and address the “what’s next” challenges confronting the American economy. “Every major country in the world is competing economically,” began Gutierrez. “Worldwide growth is unprecedented, and we are gathered here to talk about competing and winning. One idea is our freedom which separates us from rest of the world.” Gutierrez believes that we place a premium on freedom which offers us the ability to explore and invent ideas, supporting our leadership in the arts, sciences and other creative endeavors. The path that we choose will determine how competitive we are in the coming years.

“How do we make it stronger? We are at our best when we are leading ahead and now is not the time to become isolationist,” asserted Gutierrez. “Every major country is trying to increase its market share.” He firmly believes that creating the right workforce is essential. With the right people, anything is possible and there are a number of ways in which the government can help. Innovation is significantly impacting our businesses; therefore, we need to do a better job of measuring it. Access to reliable and sustainable energy sources is essential to our future. According to Gutierrez, all challenges are tremendous opportunities and this nation possesses a great history of discovering solutions during tenuous times. Growth in freedom, trade, investment and world economy is at its peak. Not only must we pursue the expanding trading field, to excel we must encourage more entrepreneurship in the private sector. “The key is to make it a goal and seek it, not just talk about it.”

The ability to dream is afforded to everyone; however, embodying the initiative to compete must be inherent. The passion for competition needs to flow through the veins of every town and community across this country now. Preparing ourselves today to thrive in a global economy will result in a winning future.