Small Business Week, 1998

Proclamation 7102 of May 29, 1998

Small Business Week, 1998

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our great Nation is renowned worldwide as the land of
opportunity. Americans are dedicated to bettering their
lives, pursuing the American Dream with entrepreneurial
spirit and ingenuity.

Small business owners across our country are among the
true heroes of our great American success story. We owe
much of today's prosperity to our Nation's 23.6 million
small businesses. Small businesses represent 99.7
percent of all employers, account for 47 percent of all
sales in the country, employ 53 percent of the private
work force, and are responsible for more than half of
the private gross domestic product. New business
formation reached another record level in 1997, with
884,609 new employer firms--the highest ever, and a 5-
percent increase over the last record set in 1996.

Recognizing the extraordinary contributions of small
businesses to the strength and continuing growth of our
economy, my Administration has worked hard to implement
policies and programs designed to help small businesses
develop and expand. We are directing tax relief to more
small businesses, expanding access to capital,
supporting innovation, providing regulatory relief,
opening overseas markets to entrepreneurs, and
strengthening America's work force through investments
in education, training, and better benefits.

The U.S. Small Business Administration plays a key role
in my Administration's efforts to help Americans start,
build, and grow their small businesses into the 21st
century. Since the end of fiscal year 1992, the SBA
extended or guaranteed more than $48 billion in loans
to small businesses, more than in the previous 12 years
combined. The SBA's current portfolio guarantees $29
billion in loans to 200,000 small business owners who
otherwise would not have access to capital. Realizing
the enormous potential of today's revolution in
technology, we are leading the world in the development
of electronic commerce and in using the Internet to
help advance small business opportunities.

As Americans observe Small Business Week, let us pay
tribute to the hundreds of thousands of small business
owners across our Nation whose energy, innovative
spirit, and faith in our system of free enterprise have
done so much to generate the unprecedented prosperity
and growth we enjoy today.

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 May 31 through June 6, 1998,
as Small Business Week. I call upon Government
officials and all the people of the United States to
observe this week with appropriate ceremonies,
activities, and programs that celebrate the
achievements of small business owners and encourage the
development of new enterprises.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-second.