First of all, I want to thank Scott Bozek, Ambassador Brinker and the entire U.S. Embassy team here in Hungary for their hospitality during our stay here in Budapest. What a wonderful city! I also want to thank Andres Sugar and AmCham for hosting today’s breakfast.

Since 1989, when you established the very first American Chamber of Commerce in this region of Europe, your organization has served as a shining symbol of the free market ideal. AmCham member businesses have invested more than $13 billion in Hungary in the last thirteen years, creating more than 100,000 jobs. I would like to commend you all for the great work you do for the Hungarian economy and for the people you employ here in this great country.

Job creation is a mission we share at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Since our inception in 1934, Ex-Im Bank has helped finance more than $400 billion in U.S. exports, supporting tens of thousands of U.S. jobs.

Ex-Im Bank is the official U.S. export credit agency. We provide financing so that foreign governments and private-sector borrowers can buy U.S. exports.

We do not compete with private-sector lenders, but step in where a credit or transaction is good but commercial sector lenders will not make credit available because the market is too risky although it meets Ex-Im Bank’s standards of reasonable assurance of repayment.

Ex-Im Bank plays a vital role in places where a buyer may not know a U.S. seller and wants to develop a relationship, but cannot get reasonable financing. This is why we back a substantial percentage of U.S. exports to emerging markets around the world

Ex-Im Bank also provides financing where American businesses with good products or services need competitive financing to level the playing field against comparable foreign businesses that have financing from their export credit agencies.

Basically, we work to help U.S. businesses successfully compete in the global marketplace. And as you all know, in an increasingly global and interdependent economy, expanding into emerging markets is critical to expanding opportunity and the bottom line. When a company can’t grow, it can’t hire new people.

That’s where Ex-Im plays such a pivotal role in establishing a beachhead in emerging markets. We allow U.S. companies to expand and increase their employment rolls.

Yesterday, I signed a co-financing agreement with the Hungarian Ex-Im Bank that will allow both agencies to leverage our resources, attracting more buyers with an efficient “one-stop shop” financing process. It simultaneously supports sustainable development here in Hungary while creating jobs both here and in the United States.

It’s a win-win proposition for both countries. And that’s what we are working to achieve: a 21^st century global economy with mutually beneficial business and economic relationships that create prosperity, job growth and long-lasting partnerships throughout the world.

The signing of this agreement underscores the importance of the partnership between the United States and Hungary. So as Hungary strives to join the European Union, we are confident that Hungarian-American business relations will continue to grow stronger than ever.

This partnership with Hungarian Ex-Im Bank models the close ties our two countries have maintained for a half a century - since 1956, when the Hungarian people stood up for their freedom, the U.S. and Hungary has fought side-by-side on behalf of freedom and liberty.

This fight goes on today, as we once again engage in battle against the enemies of freedom and liberty. As a representative of the Bush Administration but also personally as an American, I want to thank the people of Hungary for your support of the United States and freedom-loving people around the world following the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th.

Ex-Im Bank representatives were in Europe during the weeks following the tragedy, including visits to the Hungarian Ex-Im Bank, and they returned with vivid accounts of the support they received from people here in Budapest. Our steadfast partnership in the War on Terrorism will ensure that the way of life that so many Hungarians fought and died for during the Cold War will continue indefinitely.

At Ex-Im Bank, we are doing our part. Just last week, our Vice Chair Eduardo Aguirre led a team of U.S. government officials on a visit to Pakistan, to explore ways we can expand U.S. exports to Pakistan. We will most likely be visiting Afghanistan in the very near future, looking for possible creditworthy opportunities for U.S. exporters in Afghanistan.

No, nation-building efforts are not part of the Ex-Im Bank mission statement. But we are actively engaged in financing the export of goods and services that are both economically and socially beneficial to the people who live in the places where we do business. In places like sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, Ex-Im Bank is supporting creditworthy U.S. export sales which impact areas such as quality health care, efficient and comprehensive infrastructures and cleaner environments.

We do this by encouraging companies to come to us and see how we can finance products and services that provide such things as medical supplies to sub-Saharan Africa or environmentally-friendly energy sources in South America. Right here in Hungary, we support Hungarian businesses and U.S.-Hungarian partners such as GE, who over the last decade has dedicated itself to good corporate citizenship, working hand-in-hand with governments and local communities to address the needs of the people in the country where they do business.

It’s another example of Ex-Im Bank working to create successful win-win partnerships that reduce the inevitable friction of an increasingly global community, while enhancing the benefits created through global partnerships.

I am excited about the future opportunities available to companies such as yours whose bottom lines depend on the health of the global economy because global interdependence, if anything, brings us closer together. It creates partnerships and friendships, such as those we see here today between U.S. and Hungarian businesspeople, that fifty years ago would have seemed unthinkable.

Ex-Im Bank is proud to do its part in making these relationships possible. By opening markets and bringing the world closer together in a way that fosters trade, job creation and friendships, everyone benefits.

I look forward to speaking with each of you individually here today, and discussing ways we at Ex-Im Bank can help you. Thank you all very much.