Remarks at Award for Corporate Excellence

(As prepared)

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, honored guests. It’s a pleasure for me to join in this evening’s festivities being celebrated in Washington and Bratislava, and to congratulate Chevron Nigeria Ltd. and U.S. Steel on their respective awards. I would like to thank those present here with me tonight. We and our Nigerian friends represented here salute both companies for their leadership roles in the business sectors of Nigeria and Slovakia. We are here as representatives of civil society and the private and public sectors to strengthen our bonds of collaboration, as well as to acknowledge the exceptional contribution toward that effort of Chevron Nigeria Ltd. represented in Nigeria.

Wherever we find U.S. companies, we see many of them helping create economies that sustain ever-increasing growth for the benefit of people throughout the global marketplace. American businessmen and women with a vision of the greater common good are doing this not only by carrying the message of democracy, free enterprise, and the market economy, but also by ensuring that these institutions take firm root in the countries in which the U.S. firms have staked out a future. Through their action, which is most evident at the grass roots level, these American men and women are propagating the best of America’s values.

We all know that throughout the world, people equate the United States with wealth being continually generated through a unique form of capitalism. What seems to be often forgotten or is little known is that most of the firms responsible for this creation of wealth are aware, as President Bush has said, that there can be no capitalism without conscience, no wealth without character, and no integrity without a sense of responsibility for workers, consumers, shareholders, and other stakeholders.

Secretary of State Powell has chosen to honor tonight two American companies that have exhibited these qualities of conscience, character, and integrity; one in Slovakia and the other in Nigeria. My predecessor, Ambassador Howard Jeter, nominated the latter because of its extensive embrace of various stakeholders. The company has applied the words and spirit of the Award for Corporate Excellence in its everyday operations.

Chevron Nigeria Ltd. has earned distinction because it has done and continues to do what can be done to better the lives of thousands of fellow human beings in Nigeria, through jobs and community development. It is doing this because it knows that it can best achieve its objectives by collaborating closely with the communities where it operates. As an exemplary corporate citizen, Chevron Nigeria Ltd.’s work in community development, disaster assistance, HIV/AIDS awareness, education, and environmental sensitivity have warranted the recognition the company so richly deserves this evening.

I invite you to join with me to applaud Chevron Nigeria's commitment to Nigeria. Its programs testify to what is best about U.S. business practices at a time when leadership has rarely been as important as it is now to global economic growth, poverty alleviation, and improvement of health, educational, and environmental standards. In testimony of the role that Chevron Nigeria Ltd. is playing here, let us salute a company that is truly a force for economic growth and development. Thank you.