1. Opening Remarks

Director-General Lu (or presiding official of the session), honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen, Good Afternoon.

We gather here to discuss one of the most important topics that our economies face today – the promotion of employment.The goal of the Forum, as stated by Minister Zheng this morning, is to reach a common understanding on elements of an Employment Agenda for China and to identify work areas for follow-up that can guide China’s development.I believe one of the important elements of the employment agenda is to create national policies that enable the workforce to adapt to the changes and challenges brought by the changing global marketplace.Therefore, I wish to share with you the American experience, and President Bush and Labor Secretary Chao’s strategies to ensure that the United States has a well-trained workforce for the changing global marketplace.

2. The Good News

Let me first report some good news about our own economy and jobs.New jobs figures released early this month and other recent indicators show that America’s economy is strong and getting stronger.We created 308,000 new jobs in March – the largest monthly increase since April 2000 – and a total of 759,000 jobs have been added over the last seven months.Job growth has increased across all sectors; even manufacturing activity is on the increase.The March national unemployment rate was 5.7% -- far below its peak of 6.3% in June 2003, and below the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.At the state level, over the past 12 months, the unemployment rate has fallen in 45 of the 50 states of America.Our economy is growing; inflation is low; homeownership is high; and interest rates remain low.All indicators point to continued economic growth.

How has the United States achieved such success?We have been able to overcome the challenges from the past three years because we have taken great pains to put in place the ingredients for growth.We have visionary business leaders, we have great productive workers, and we have sound legislation, policies and programs.

Today, I will outline for you new policies and initiatives designed to better train, educate and prepare American workers.

3. The Employment Challenge

In times of rapid economic change and the ever-evolving global marketplace, we face challenges to provide new employment opportunities to workers even as productivity increases and other technological gains are being made.It is critically important that the government implements policies to ensure that the American workforce has the necessary skills to remain competitive in the world.

We have an innovative economy.Two-thirds of America’s economic growth in the 1990s resulted from the introduction of new technologies; yet not enough workers are being trained quickly enough to take advantage of the increasing number of new jobs created by our economy.We need to close the skills gap in America.Clearly, it is the responsibility of the government, in partnership with business and labor, to provide effective job training programs.

4. Existing Federal Programs

Currently, our government spends almost $23 billion on more than 30 job-training programs spread across nine cabinet agencies.Some of these programs have remained fundamentally unchanged for decades.Many have high administrative costs that prevent valuable resources from getting directly to the workers who need the training, and discourage many workers, employers, training institutions and community colleges from participating.

To reform the federal-sponsored employment training system, President Bush proposed recently to refocus these programs on three results that represent their true worth to workers and the economy:Did participants get a job?How long did they keep the job?And how much are they being paid?We believe that the training should be targeted for jobs in the sectors that are most likely to grow, such as health care, information technology, biotechnology, geospatial technology, transportation, advanced manufacturing and financial and other services.

5.Our Solutions

To help America’s workforce better prepare for the changing global marketplace and to ensure job growth, President Bush and Secretary Chao recently announced several initiatives.Let me share with you some details about our plans.

• First, Less Red Tape and More Help for Workers.Currently under the Workforce Investment Act, we spend $4 billion each year on federal training and grant programs.Last year, these programs trained only 206,000 workers, or almost $20,000 per trainee.The President set a goal for us to double the numbers of workers receiving job training by cutting $300 million of overhead, thus increasing money going directly to workers.We will consolidate four of these programs into a single grant totaling $4 billion to the states, making federal support more effective and efficient.

• Second, Increased Innovation Training Accounts, or ITAs.ITAs are a program that provides workers with more flexible and responsive assistance in getting job training.Workers would have more choices in job training – community colleges, private sector providers, and local business and community organizations – to get the help they need.

• Third, More Accountability.Under the new plan, Governors would be given more flexibility to design their own workforce training programs.The states, however, would be required to set goals in terms of number of workers placed in jobs, duration of their job placement, and earnings.

• Fourth, Jobs for the 21st Century Initiative.This initiative includes a $250 million proposal to help America’s community colleges train 100,000 additional workers for the sectors that are creating the most new jobs.This initiative further expands the Department of Labor’s successful High Growth Job Training Initiative, launched by President Bush and Secretary Chao in 2001, which has provided $71 million in 38 partnerships nationwide among community colleges, public workforce agencies, and employers.These initiatives help colleges produce graduates who enter the workforce with the skills most demanded by employers.

• And lastly, Personal Reemployment Accounts.President Bush and Secretary Chao have also proposed $50 million for a pilot program of up to $3,000 in accounts for those unemployed workers who have the most difficulty finding jobs to use toward job training, transportation, childcare, or other assistance in obtaining a new job.Workers who found a job quickly would be able to keep the balance of the account as a reemployment bonus.

6. America’s Children and Their Education

Before I conclude my remarks today, I want to discuss our plans for educating America’s children.They are the workforce of the future.Most of the fastest-growing occupations I mentioned a moment ago require strong math and science skills, even training beyond high school level.Unfortunately, in the United States, not enough high school students are receiving the skills they need to compete with students of other countries, including Chinese students.Only 24 states require at least three years of high school math and only 21 states require three years of science.

President Bush recently announced a new plan to strengthen math and science education to ensure that young Americans are graduating with the skills they need to succeed in the new economy.This plan strengthens and modernizes vocational and technical education, expands math and science education for elementary, high school, and vocational students.It also enables more low-income students to pursue degrees in math and science, and enables educators to determine whether high schools are graduating students with the skills they need to succeed.Included in this plan are a new $1 billion Secondary and Technical Education Program and a $100 million Presidential Math and Science Scholars Fund.

7. Concluding Remarks

This afternoon’s plenary session asks, “What are the experience and best practices of the international communities and foreign countries for promoting employment?”I have just shared with you the challenges we face and the solutions we propose for the United States.