U.S. OFFICIAL'S REMARKS AT HELMETS FOR KIDS EVENT IN HANOI, VIETNAM

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at Helmets For Kids Ceremony
Remarks
Charles H. Rivkin
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
20 October Kindergarten
Hanoi, Vietnam
May 27, 2015

Thank you for that introduction.

I am thrilled to be here with you today on my first visit to Vietnam. I would like to recognize the honorable ministers of the Government of Vietnam, members of the press, members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi, and the leadership and staff members of the Asia Injury Prevention – or AIP – Foundation.

Let me also extend greetings to the children and teachers from the 20 October kindergarten. When Secretary Kerry joined with former President Clinton to help launch AIP Foundation’s Helmets for Kids program 15 years ago, he visited this school.

He was a Senator then, and I was a businessman in California. Things have changed. He is now the Secretary of State (and my boss!). It is an honor to serve him, and to convey the abiding good wishes of our government, as we celebrate 20 years of extraordinary economic and diplomatic progress between our two countries.

What better way to kick off that celebration than showing how our two governments and businesses can work together to build our people-to-people ties and grow our shared prosperity?

If I may, I would like to relive a very decisive moment that occurred in the lives of three Vietnamese children, all living in different parts of the country: a boy named Hung; another boy named Trung, and a girl named Yen.

At this decisive moment, they did what approximately seven million other young schoolchildren do every day: they hopped on to the back of a motorbike, and draped their tiny hands around the back of a parent or loved one.

What they didn’t realize was – statistically – they were sitting in the most dangerous place a child could be. Every year, more people between the ages of 15 and 29 die on the road than from any other cause. It’s the second highest reason for a child’s death between 5 and 14.

About 22,000 Vietnamese of all ages die in road traffic crashes every single year, according to the World Health Organization. And more than 433,000 Vietnamese are injured.

On that particular day, Hung, Trung and Yen – three Vietnamese children who didn’t know each other – were hit by careless drivers on other motorbikes. All three would almost certainly have died if they weren’t wearing protective helmets.

Those helmets – made by Protec, an American non-profit social enterprise – were part of a program of public awareness that the AIP Foundation has created and maintained in Vietnam for the past 15 years. That program includes targeted education programs, public awareness campaigns, as well as global and legislative advocacy.

Today, I’m here to help launch a public-private partnership between the AIP Foundation and the Department of State that will build on the AIP Foundation’s example, through road safety training and many more child helmets.

This initiative highlights our recognition that our American companies have an ethical responsibility and, frankly, a profitable incentive, to support better lives for the communities where we do business.

American companies working in Vietnam will be helping to distribute up to 25,000 child helmets. Each helmet will carry the U.S. company name as well as a logo commemorating the 20th anniversary between our two countries. And they will be distributed at kindergartens and primary schools in 15 provinces throughout Vietnam.

Right now, most adults in Vietnam wear helmets, but only 38 percent of children in the cities do. Many parents believe – mistakenly – that helmets hurt children’s spines.

But as AIP Foundation President Greig Craft will tell you, it’s urban legend. It’s simply not true. The Vietnamese people deserve better information – and their children deserve better protection. By encouraging more child helmets and providing communities with education on road safety, we believe we can help turn those numbers around.

The late Nelson Mandela once said: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

As we commemorate 20 years of diplomatic and economic engagement, and hope for many years more, we believe we must look to the future’s most precious and growing asset: our children.

Helmets for Kids is one way that we can help do that, by addressing a problem that is damaging in many ways.

Each death on the road does more than steal children from their families and communities in personal ways. It also takes its toll on the economy. In 2010, Vietnam lost more than $3 billion due to traffic crashes – that’s more than ten times what the country receives in development assistance.

There is also the incalculable cost of a young life interrupted. Each of these children could have grown up to be a productive member of their communities and the economy at large.

By ushering in a growing generation of safer road users, we can give every Vietnamese boy and every Vietnamese girl the best chance possible to participate in their country’s future.

That, in turn, will help to grow our mutual prosperity and extend our ties so that we will see many more commemorative celebrations like the one we celebrate this year.

Thank you.

KEYNOTE REMARKS: BIOEONOMY AND CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Economic, Energy, Agricultural and Trade Issues: Keynote Remarks at the Bioeconomy and Climate Change Forum
05/06/2015 01:10 PM EDT
Keynote Remarks at the Bioeconomy and Climate Change Forum
Remarks
Charles H. Rivkin
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Washington, DC
May 6, 2015
As prepared

Thank you, Eric, for that introduction.

Good morning everyone, and a special welcome to our ambassadors and others from the foreign diplomatic corps here today.

Before I continue, I’d like to thank the many people responsible for today’s event, including our partner, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO. I look forward to hearing from Jim Greenwood, President and CEO, in just a few minutes.

I also want to thank all the people in the State Department who worked on this event for their outstanding support and participation in making this event happen. That includes, in particular, the Foreign Service Institute, as well as the Office of Global Food Security, the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor, the Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs, and of course our own Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.

With that, I am delighted to kick off today’s event which will explore some of the innovative and exciting things this extended community is doing to address climate change. This is really one of the most challenging issues of our time but it is truly bringing out the best and brightest among us to respond.

As I thought about climate change and how far we have come, I thought about Homer’s Iliad, the ancient story of Helen of Troy – whose face launched a thousand ships to bring her back to Greece.

But before those ships could launch, they needed a favorable wind. So they consulted a prophet named Calchas, a man who examined animal entrails and observed the flight of birds to make his prognostications. He told the Greeks they would get their wind if their leader sacrificed his only daughter to the gods.

Back then, that’s what passed for climate science. Today, every Greek warrior would simply pull out a smartphone and check his weather app!

Of course, the Iliad’s a myth, set more than 3,000 years ago. But I use it to show just how far science has come and how technology is literally in our hands, letting us do things previous generations would have considered beyond the power of mere mortals. Most importantly, we are using the great discoveries of biotechnology to address climate change in more effective, sustainable and widely applicable ways.

Last fall, I went to Des Moines, Iowa, to attend the World Food Prize, and to speak about biotechnology as a tool for hunger alleviation and job creation. While there, I had the opportunity to join a farmer in central Iowa, sit in the buddy seat of his John Deere S670 combine harvester, and watch him work.

As we moved through the cornfields, his combine gathered, husked and shelled 12 rows of corn at a time, turning them into bushels of instant grain. He checked his progress with onboard computers and GPS technology. These helped him deposit seed and fertilizer precisely, and even showed if he had missed a single ear of corn!

While he was doing this, he spoke about the importance of international markets for American agriculture, and how he had once hosted President Xi Jinping of China at his farm.

In just one ride on a combine, I saw a farmer using technology to enhance his livelihood and engage fully within the global economy. I also saw how biotechnology was helping farmers to use sustainable techniques that reduce our carbon footprint and address climate change.

Of course, climate change cuts across all sectors of the bioeconomy, which not only include agriculture but health, industry and energy. It is one of the biggest threats of our time with a decisive role in everything from pandemic diseases to crop damage, and from famine to widespread destruction of homes and habitats.

One question for our time is this: Can we direct the kind of innovation that has already built the bioeconomy towards addressing these enormous challenges?

The answer is “yes,” if we continue to build on the incredible innovative progress we have made so far – and are making right now – in the biosciences.

It’s “yes,” as long as we share the same consensus mission: to provide for humanity’s ever growing needs while reducing our carbon footprint.

Finally, it’s “yes,” if we ensure that our breakthroughs not only create benefits for society but are sustainable in the global market.

Right now, in the United States, the bioeconomy is worth more than $300 billion dollars and already supports 1.6 million jobs. It can, and it should, grow more because, quite simply, we have no choice: We have to invent our way to solutions or face the consequences.

The good news is, innovation is central to our DNA. That’s clearly evident in the bioeconomy. We are finding ways to transform our waste into valuable resources. We are making our production processes more efficient and sustainable. Instead of addressing disease with chemically derived medicines that respond to symptoms, we are using biologically derived vaccines that work on the causes. And we are creating sustainable biofuels to drive our cars, warm our homes, and light up our workplaces.

But innovation needs support from many corners, from the funding of research to the protection of intellectual property rights; from a free and open internet to the imaginative partnerships that government and the private sector can create so that more people are free to make those powerful discoveries that benefit us all.

From the government corner, we need to address macro policies that respond to climate change. We need to agree on global commitments that count, metrics that matter, and standards that improve conditions.

The Obama administration has already shown its ongoing commitment in this space. It recently announced a target of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent in 2025 compared with 2005.

Last November, President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China made an historic Joint Announcement of our intended targets, with China agreeing for the first time to a peak year for its CO2 emissions of around 2030 and to an ambitious target of 20 percent clean energy in its energy mix by 2030.

This December in Paris, we are looking to establish, for the first time, an ambitious, durable climate regime that applies to all countries, is fair, and focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience.

Our commitment to address climate change is as widespread as it is focused.

We launched the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture, which works to produce more food, adapt to a changing climate, and reduce greenhouse gases.

We support the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Climate Technology Center and Network, and the Green Climate Fund, both of which support the efforts of developing countries in different ways to adapt to climate change.

That includes work to protect forests, support resilient agricultural sectors, and reduce greenhouse gases, while generating economic opportunities for their citizens.

We also invest billions in research and development of low carbon technologies and energy efficiency.

On other fronts, my Bureau has a leading role in making sure investors, entrepreneurs, researchers and the entire bio-economic extended community can be more connected, integrated, efficient and profitable.

For example, we advocate in world forums for a free internet to keep open channels of information, commerce and trade. We are integral to the negotiations in two ongoing multilateral trade deals that will not only break down barriers to trade and investment but set new environmental standards for member nations.

We also foster innovation by establishing legal frameworks that protect intellectual property rights, minimize corruption, and reward entrepreneurship.

The government has unique assets in at least two other ways. First of all, we have convening authority: We can assemble political leaders, scientists, economists, university leaders, business leaders and multilateral bodies to pursue mutually agreed upon goals.

Secondly, we have 270 embassies and posts around the world – our shoes on the ground, you might say – to extend our messages and outreach with citizens, political leaders and civil society organizations everywhere.

While the U.S. Government works to play its part, there are roles for a wide array of other actors in the bioeconomy, including other governments, multilateral bodies, businesses, universities, entrepreneurs, and scientists.

As I glance around this room, I can see a good representation of that global community. I look forward to hearing more about the stories you have to tell.

We have so much to build on; so many success stories in biotechnology, as we work to combat the effects of climate change. As I mentioned, one of the consequences of climate change is the increased risk of insect-borne disease exposure, such as dengue and malaria, in places such as Florida and Texas. The National Science Foundation has supported research that reengineers microorganisms to produce an anti-malarial drug. It’s called artemisinin and new companies are already putting it on the market.

That’s a perfect illustration of the bioeconomy at its best: Funded innovative research addresses a serious problem, using cross-disciplinary biosciences. The private sector brings it to market and makes it available globally. The problem is addressed.

As I learned on my trip to Iowa, the agricultural sector continues to benefit from innovation. We are making more sustainable use of land and water. We are developing drought tolerant varieties of corn, nutritionally enhanced rice, and disease resistant oranges. These are crucial breakthroughs as we also try to feed a global population that will reach an estimated 9 billion by the year 2050.

These and other stories prove to me that, despite the size and scale of our challenges, we are rising to meet them head on. I believe it’s because, throughout human history, we have made productive use of innovation since we first learned to rub two sticks together.

Back then it was sticks. Now we’re creating genetically modified mosquitos that don’t carry malaria. We are turning algae into jet fuel. We are making apples that don’t brown and potatoes that produce fewer carcinogens when fried.

Of course, with innovation comes change – and inevitably resistance. Charles Kettering, an American inventor and former head of research at General Motors, who owned 186 patents, once said: “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”

The bioeconomy is all about progress, from the cellular level to the macro-economic level, as we work to grow an ecosystem of invention and reinvention that creates the products and processes for a more sustainable future. We may not seem as powerful and impressive as those ancient Greek warriors, waiting for their favorable wind. But if you compare the stakes we face, we can make the case that we’re more modern heroes. By creating a viable, sustainable bioeconomy, we are not only enhancing and sustaining society; we are contributing to a more ecologically balanced planet. For my money, that beats getting Helen back from Troy any time!

Thank you.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY RIVKIN'S REMARKS ON U.S.-CHINA FILM RELATIONSHIP

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Keynote Address at Motion Picture Association Reception

Remarks

Charles H. Rivkin

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs

Beijing, China

September 5, 2014

Remarks as prepared

Thank you. I am so delighted to have the opportunity to attend this movie reception. It doesn’t matter where we go in the world, movies are magical.

From Santa Monica, where I spent almost 20 years working in the entertainment sector, to Paris, France, where I most recently served four years as U.S. Ambassador, I have witnessed firsthand people’s excitement and reverence for films.

I think it’s because movies – on screens large and small – reach so deeply into the things that matter to us: personal aspirations, our desire to pursue happiness and be free. They connect people across borders, across cultures, and they transcend languages.

I am very excited to be in China today to discuss the burgeoning U.S.-China film relationship. Back when I started in the entertainment industry, I would not have imagined that China would be on pace to become the largest film market in the world. The news that Transformers: Age of Extinction broke $300 million in the China market alone is truly remarkable.

However, I would like to take a step back from the numbers and remember why I got into this business so many years ago.

At the Jim Henson Company, I had the privilege to work with the creators of the Muppets and Sesame Street. Jim Henson once told me that media can be an enormous source of good in the world. He lived that philosophy through the programs that he made, such as Sesame Street.

I also attribute a great deal of the American success to telling great stories, even the dark ones.

Last year, I was equally parts horrified and captivated when I watched 12 years a Slave, a movie that tells a true story of a free black man who is kidnapped in Washington, D.C. and sold into slavery. This film, which won the Oscar for best picture, immerses the audience in the pure brutality of being a slave in the United States.

This is a terrible chapter in our history and is difficult to watch. But the freedom, and I would say the bravery, of directors, writers, and producers to point this critical lens at our past, resulted in an authentic movie that touched people and made an important artistic and historical contribution to society.

A great story must be told in a captivating way. We often use technology as a vehicle to believably deliver our story. Tonight in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we will see technology that truly dazzles. This great new example of science fiction draws on breakthroughs in movie technology.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ visuals prove that there are no longer any boundaries between computer-generated characters, as the apes feel just as real as the actors playing human roles.

The technological advances that shape the movie experience and allow the audience to get lost in the story are one part of the complex production process and viewing experience. Advanced technologies in the movie theaters, such as IMAX, 3D, and thunderous surround-sound make powerful contributions to the audience experience in the theater.

Of course these technologies were developed through painstaking research and trial and error, and funded by millions of dollars of investment.

From my former vantage as a CEO, it is clear to me that strong intellectual property rights and open markets are also critical components to developing a thriving film industry.

Making a $200 million bet on a new movie or film technology is difficult if a company cannot adequately protect its intellectual property.

The patents and licenses for these break-through technologies, and the trademarks and copyrights vital to creating thrilling and enduring movies, allow rights holders to earn profits and recoup the cost to develop and commercialize their creative ideas.

And as Assistant Secretary of State for the U.S. State Department’s Economic and Business Bureau, safeguarding intellectual property rights is one of my key priorities.

When we talk about intellectual property rights, we’re not talking about abstractions. We’re really talking about people.

Yes, movies matter to us as consumers. But they also matter to the people who create the ideas, the products and the technology that make them possible. And not just the ones who invented it, but the ones who work on it.

There’s a whole industry of men and women – all over the world, not just in the United States – who develop, produce, create, distribute or promote motion pictures and television programs. And whether they are artists or technicians, their livelihoods depend on the creation of these films that enrich our lives.

This IPR problem is not limited to the entertainment industry, but impacts businesses – small and large – across all sectors. Prior to coming to Beijing, I met with entrepreneurs and small businesses in Myanmar, Singapore, and Hong Kong, all of whom voiced their concern about losing their ideas to intellectual property theft.

Returning to the film industry, I am also deeply concerned about digital piracy, which is a real threat to U.S. and Chinese content creators alike. Some films are adversely impacted because pirated versions are available prior to the films’ official opening, decreasing the number of potential moviegoers, as we have seen in the very recent case of The Expendables 3.

Increased movie revenues have the potential to benefit both foreign and domestic stakeholders, both of whom should care deeply about intellectual property protection.

In fact, I just had a wonderful discussion this morning with Mr. Wang, Chairman of Wanda, one of China’s largest entertainment companies. Many of you are probably familiar with Chairman Wang and Wanda’s 2012 acquisition of the U.S.-based movie theater operator, AMC. In our conversation, he agreed with me that intellectual property rights are critical for the future growth of China.

The boom in the Chinese box office, which reached sales of $3.6 billion in 2013 has been wonderful for Chinese filmmakers and the industry as a whole, but the Chinese film and television industry has more to offer than simply a large audience: it has the possibility to develop further as a mature, self-sustaining, economically and creatively successful industry.

There truly is so much potential for our industries to flourish and further excite audiences around the world. I look forward to continued cooperation among our governments, industries, and creative sectors to develop our film industries and protect intellectual property. After all, if we want to continue to see the movies we love, we need to reward those who create them.