World

President Talks Shop

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 21, 1999 / 10:12 AM EST / CBS

President Clinton was spending Sunday doing what he loves doing most, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller - discussing government. It's a day-long conference in Florence, Italy, on "progressive goverance," and in discussing his approach to government, the president had a receptive audience in five of the world's leaders, including Britain and France.

President Clinton called Sunday for developed nations to ensure their citizens have access to the Internet "as complete as telephone access," saying that would dramatically reduce the income gap between rich and poor.

He said one of the greatest domestic problems facing developed countries is the "digital divide" that gives those who have computers an enormous advantage over those who do not.

"I think we should shoot for a goal within the developed countries of having Internet access as complete as telephone access within a fixed number of years," Clinton said. "It will do as much as anything else to reduce income inequality."

He also said developed countries should work to "get more cell phones and computer hook-ups out there" in poorer nations.

"The people in Africa are no different from the people in America," Mr. Clinton said. "If you give people access to technology, a lot of smart people will figure out how to make a lot of money."

Mr. Clinton, in the midst of a five-nation, 10-day European tour, participated in a forum on "progressive governance for the 21st century" - a daylong talk-fest on ideas that present an alternative to traditional liberal and conservative approaches to governing. Mr. Clinton's wife, Hillary, joined the audience after he spoke.

"We are here because we affirm the importance of the nation-state as necessary to provide the conditions of community and humanity in this very different world," he said.

CBS

From left to right, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, President Clinton, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

Joining Mr. Clinton in the discussion were Italian Premier Massimo D'Alema, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

They met in the Great Hall at the Palazzo Vecchio, a spectacular 14th century structure featuring a frescoed ceiling, painted by Florentine artist Giorgio Vasari, glorifying Cosimo and his creation of the Grad Duchy of Tuscany.

Before the session, Mr. Clinton ignored pouring rain and took a 15-minute walk through Florence, strolling along the Arno River toward the Ponte Vecchio, a 14th-century structure that is the city's oldest bridge and the only one to escape destruction in World War II. The president used an umbrella, but the security agents who accompanied him did not and were drenched.

After Sunday's discussions, Mr. Clinton was to depart for Bulgaria for the first visit to the former communist nation by a U.S. president. He was scheduled to stop in Kosovo before returning to Washington on Tuesday.

In Bulgaria, Mr. Clinton planned to deliver a speech Monday aimed at encouraging citizens to support economic reform as a necessary but painful step in the transition from communism to democracy. He also will participate in a roundtable discussion with students and other young Bulgarians. Since communism fell 10 years ago, about 700,000 Bulgarians - mostly young people - have left to pursue opportunities elsewhere.

Bulgaria has brought inflation down from 582 percent in 1997 to 1 percent last year, but the economy is not growing sufficiently to enable ordinary citizens to feel they are benefiting from the transition to a free-market economy. The average Bulgarian earns about $100 a month, and there is growing public discontent with slow gains in personal income.

Widespread Internet access is a goal Mr. Clinton already set for the United States. Earlier this month, in the first-ever on-line chat discussion by a president, he said having the Internet as available as telephones would "dramatically improve the economic prospects for a lot of Americans - and, I might add, a lot of people around the world."

On Sunday, Mr. Clinton said developed nations should view Internet access as part of an overall strategy to close "the skills gap" in order to ensure that their citizens remain employable as long as possible.

"There's a role for government here," Mr. Clinton said. "We have to spend more money, not less, than ever before on education. It needs to start sooner, it needs to last for a lifetime, and it needs to be focused much more rigorously on results."

"That's why education for each one of us is the central driving economic message for government," echoed Blair. "For years it was the social message, it's an economic message today."

In unscheduled remarks at a dinner Saturday night, Mr. Clinton warned that "enemies of the nation state" - terrorists, drug runners and mobsters - also are capable of using technology to carry out their plans. He urged the leaders to work harder to ensure that criminals are not allowed to exploit open borders, the Internet, and sophisticated technology.