So with that, let me congratulate these companies. We’re honoring all of them today. Thank you – all of you, and especially these companies – for your leadership, for your efforts, and for your congratulations. We need more of you. Thank you. (Applause. )
So it’s wonderful to be here, and I – today is – Oughout. S. businesses are a critical way to obtain ingenuity at home and abroad around the world. At their finest, they showcase America’s maximum standards, providing good-paying work opportunities, advancing workers’ rights, purchasing local communities, protecting organic resources, preserving our distributed planet. It’s those strengths that make America’s personal sector such a powerful companion to our administration.
That’s exactly what employees at Intel within Costa Rica have done, and that’s what they wanted to do. They started a program regarding young people interested in STEM, focusing on students in the historically underserved region of Costa Rica, Limón. Through the program, young people can learn STEM skills like computer programming, improving their own English, and finding to truly in other tech comanies.
I’m honored to help enjoy the winners of this year’s Award for Corporate Excellence. And it’s fitting, actually, that we gather right here today in the Benjamin Franklin Room. In addition to being one of America’s first diplomats, certainly one of our founding fathers, Franklin was also a brilliant businessman. Actually, before he was 20 he started running his own printing shop and over time he turned it into one of America’s first franchises, stretching from New Britain to the Caribbean. Whenever he died, Franklin left 2, 000 pounds to the cities of Boston plus Philadelphia, which is more than million in today’s money, to fund low-interest loans in order to young apprentices starting businesses on their own. He also had – he furthermore wrote a book of – basically his autobiography to get his son, and my father gave it to me plus I’ll never forget he outlined one – one of the guidelines that he gave, Franklin offered to his son, had been, “Keep your eyes open before marriage, ” and closed afterwards, which I constantly thought was great tips. (Laughter. )
Our first honor goes to a company that’s addressing a challenge that’s faced simply by countries and by communities all around the world, including here in america, and that’s inequity. We all know that when we expand access to economic opportunities, whether that’s providing an training or ensuring equal spend on equal work, we help to unlock the full potential of our peoples and our communities.
We also have several international representatives here today. A couple of them I know quite well. Manuel Tovar, Costa Rica’s minister of international trade; Rosan Roeslani – thank you for coming – the Indonesian ambassador to the Oughout. S.; and Ambassador Muhammad Imran from Bangladesh. Good to see you, friend. Thank you all for the partnership. Thank you many for helping to make today this kind of wonderful day.
As a reasonable trade company, Anova is also dedicated to supporting their fisherman, helping them secure increased wages, expanding their entry to U. S. and Canadian markets, and training all of them in how to combat bribery, corruption, illegal fishing, and other routines that are bad for the environment plus – and – for livelihood.
Our next award would go to a company that’s building strength to climate change in Bangladesh, where only about a third of the population has access to safe drinking water. That is critical for avoiding serious waterborne illnesses like cholera plus typhoid fever, and it is also vital to a – to having a healthy population. As climate change heats our planet, droughts and rising sea levels are making clean water even scarcer, drying out up some sources and contaminating other sources with seawater.
We’re furthermore joined by Kelly Fay Rodríguez, our new specific representative for international work affairs, who’s dedicated the girl career – there you might be – who’s dedicated her career to improving work rights at home and overseas. We’re also joined up with by Congressman Ro Khanna, who’s a big believer in the power of American innovation. Thank you.
The final company is Anova, an organization from Indonesia. It is leading the way in producing seafood that meets high criteria for quality and security, and it’s doing so ethically. Unlike other seafood companies, Anova is involved through the process, from working with fishers in the Indo-Pacific to running its own inspection laboratories for you to get fish to stores. It’s how they know their product because they can search for them from – actually from the time they log off the boat to the period they get to the table. It’s how they know their products are safe for customers and sustainable for the environment.
Finally, we are awarding two companies for his or her responsible operations, and they are proving that they can do good business while also doing right by their employees plus their community.
I actually had the particular pleasure of hosting this particular ceremony last year, and also whilst I was assistant secretary pertaining to economic, energy, and business decades ago – hundreds of years ago. And I had been delighted; I was always pleased to be here. This is such a good opportunity to celebrate our own companies who really live our values. Therefore thank you all for coming.
As I bypass the world, oftentimes I am questioned why – how can you compete with state-owned enterprises that obtain subsidies, that don’t pay out taxes, that don’t even have to make a profit? Properly, these four companies are samples of something that I talk about at all times: Give us our private sector, give us a level playing field, plus I’ll take my chances every single time.
UNDER SECRETARY FERNANDEZ: Good morning. Good morning. It’s wonderful to be here. It’s wonderful to see so many deals with of friends and families who’ve come to celebrate. Thank you, Ramin, for that introduction. And to Ramin and our Special Representative designed for Commercial and Business Matters Dilawar Syed, thank you. Thank you all for what you are to support American companies plus American workers around the world.
So one of Drinkwell’s founders developed the water purification system that’s cheaper and that’s more efficient and it’s easier to run than other models. The company has also created a brand new delivery method, ATM – ATM-style machines – that sell and dispense clean water in Bangladesh and they are more accessible for people whose homes aren’t connected to drinking water pipes. For about 8 years, since 2015, Drinkwell has created hundreds of jobs for people in Bangladesh and brought almost 200 million gallons of clean water in order to low-income communities in Dhaka, enough drinking water for thousands and thousands of people a year.
During the COVID-19 pandemic within the last couple of years, factories in one Indian native state failed to pay workers their full wages and benefits. So what do Gap do? Along with other companies, Gap joined labor representatives to help an estimated four hundred, 000 garment workers get more than million within back salaries for their uncompensated work.
Right now we face difficulties that are just too big – they’re too big for any a single country to handle, whether that’s combating climate change or protecting public health. And thankfully, we have no to take these on alone. American companies are utilizing their expertise around the world, their creativeness, and their resources to help find innovative solutions to these problems. In doing this, they’re proving the old saying, which is a truism, that business can serve the public great, that you can do well by doing good. And so this year we are celebrating four companies who do all of this and more.
I’ve actually stopped at the Intel plant in Costa Rica, and it’s already been wonderful to see the kind of relationship, the kind of effect that they have acquired in that country. Over 100 students have participated in the program so far; forty percent of them are ladies. And now Intel can be partnering with the Costa Rican Government to expand this program around the country.
These four companies which i just highlighted are more than just places of business. They’re driven by more than the bottom line. They’re winners of our country’s highest concepts and values, and partners in tackling the most vexing global challenges in our period. And they’re assisting us make a real vision in a world that’s open up, free, secure, and successful.
The first one is Gap in India, where it’s using its reach as a multinational firm to improve conditions for local workers and for their organizations. Throughout Gap’s supply chain and across the country’s apparel industry, Gap provides implemented policies for their vendors to help prevent and address gender-based violence in the workplace, found also created training programs that have benefitted more than half several women and girls in Indian since 2007.
Drinkwell is also a display of the power of international exchanges. And one of the company’s founders is a Bangladeshi United states whose grandfather died of a waterborne illness. He or she – so he obtained a Fulbright – he got a Fulbright to study the problem and potential methods to Bangladesh, and there he met a chemical anatomist professor from an American college, and together the two of them went on to found Drinkwell. I couldn’t have been a lot more impressed when I met this young man, and I just want I had a little bit of stock in his future. (Laughter. ) He’s going to do quite well.
Considering that 2015, the company has provided over 0, 000 to fisher collectives on top of their regular wages so fishers can work together to invest that cash back into their businesses, local universities, and communities.
