Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2014

Proclamation 9149 of July 25, 2014

Minority Enterprise Development Week, 2014

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our Nation thrives when we fulfill the promise of
opportunity for all--when each of us has the same
chance to succeed, when every American can find pride
and independence in their work, when our shared
prosperity rests upon the broad shoulders of a rising
middle class. With talent, dedication, and bold ideas,
minority entrepreneurs reach for that promise. They
bring jobs and services to communities across our
country. They innovate and create. They open new
markets to goods stamped ``Made in the U.S.A.'' During
Minority Enterprise Development Week, we celebrate
their essential role in our economy and our
communities.

Minority-owned businesses employ millions of Americans,
and my Administration is proud to invest in their
success. We have increased access to contracts and
capital, reduced burdensome paperwork, and connected
more minority enterprises to booming export markets.
Since I took office, my Administration has made more
loans to small business owners than any other. By
hosting workshops and through www.Business.USA.gov, we
are empowering minority entrepreneurs with the tools to
help their businesses grow.

America's great strength lies in our diversity--of
people, perspectives, and ideas. We cannot succeed when
a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely
make it. But if we invest in small businesses and give
all our entrepreneurs a chance to compete, new
opportunities will open, and we will flourish--as
individuals and as a Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, 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 July 27 through
August 2, 2014, as Minority Enterprise Development
Week. I call upon all Americans to celebrate this week
with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities
to recognize the many contributions of our Nation's
minority enterprises.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord two
thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
ninth.