As CIPE moves into the 21st century, we believe that our mission to promote democracy, market-opening economic reforms, and private enterprise development is more important than ever. The winners of the 21st century will be those nations that adopt market-oriented institutions suitable for the global marketplace. This is where CIPE and its expertise come in: We are strategically positioned to provide the tools necessary to prepare for what lies ahead. CIPE has been extending a helping hand to incipient democracies and emerging markets for the past fifteen years, and our track record of success speaks for itself.
Looking ahead, we have identified eight key trends that surmount national and regional boundaries. We and our worldwide partners believe that these trends will play an increasingly important role as globalization continues to expand in this new century:
With this in mind, we are placing even greater emphasis on three facets of our work that we expect will help us to "spread the word" and generate additional exposure for CIPE in the foreseeable future.
The first facet is partnerships. Over the years, CIPE has been fortunate to receive funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and private donors. In addition, CIPE has maintained a long-standing partnership with the United States Information Agency (now the State Department's Bureau for Public Diplomacy) to co-publish our magazine, Economic Reform Today.
The second facet is CIPE's communications strategy. Like many organizations, CIPE is placing a growing emphasis on electronic communications and the Internet. Our award-winning Website, The Forum on Economic Freedom, is more user-friendly than ever and is continually being upgraded. The Internet is also playing a central role in CIPE's new discussion groups on the Web, the most recent of which concentrates on the worldwide fight against corruption.
The third and final facet involves an even greater investment in people. CIPE has invested in some outstanding programs over the years, but it's the people behind those programs who have made these experiences a success. CIPE has been fortunate to build a remarkable track record when it comes to identifying emerging leaders and helping to provide them with expertise, resources, and a platform from which to make their case.
Despite the sweeping changes that have taken place in the past fifteen years, CIPE remains as dedicated today to democratic development as we were at our inception. We have never lost sight of our original mission, spelled out in 1983: "To undertake locally leveraged programs of legislative analysis, marketing guidance and management counsel to indigenous grass-roots organizations around the world to assist the newly emerging democratic nations in their embryonic transitions to an entrepreneurial, open-market way of life."
John A. Bohn, Chairman