SAJJAD PURVEZ - The United States wants its ambassadors to act as the Chief Executive Officers of corporate companies, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

“I think that we have given clear direction in the Obama Administration to our ambassadors. We are working hard to turn our ambassadors into CEOs,” Ms. Clinton said in her opening remarks at the President’s Export Council.

Ms. Clinton said she consider it a critical aspect of her job to help open every market, she can find and sell every American product that she can sell.

“I not only like to promote our products and services, but our ingenuity, our creativity, and everything else that we stand for,” she said.

U.S. President Barack Obama has set the ambitious goal of doubling America’s exports in five years.

As such it wants its Ambassadors posted at missions across the globe to act as the selling agents of U.S. products, besides their traditional role.

“We believe that having a CEO model for the chief of mission will help us manage the myriad of U.S. Government assets and activities in every country in the world today,” she said.

“So when I talked to Special Representative Lorraine Hariton or anybody else in our shop, it is about making sure that we help provide the tools that our ambassadors need to be able to do everything possible to promote this mission about expanding our exports,” she said.

Ms. Clinton said, whenever she travels overseas she tries to do a commercial diplomacy event in many places.

“I was in Australia where we did an event with Caterpillar, John Deere, Harley Davidson, and GE. When I was in Russia, I visited the Boeing engineering facility in Moscow and witnessed firsthand the extraordinary cooperation, not only between Russians and Americans but between Moscow, Chicago, and Seattle,” she said.

Courtesy: The Hindu