国际英语新闻：Obama urges businesses to pitch in U.S. economic recovery efforts

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Monday called on the nation's corporate executives to "get in the game" and start investing in the United States, his latest effort to speed up the nascent U.S. economic recovery and job creation pace.

Obama stressed that the U.S. government and business sector must cooperate together to foster the recovery in a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's leading business lobby agency which had years of vociferous conflicts with the Obama administration over issues including health care and financial regulations.

"Whatever differences we may have, I know that all of us share a deep belief in this country, our people, and the principles that have made America's economy the envy of the world," Obama said.

Obama reiterated his stance in the State of the Union address delivered last month that the nation needed to "out-innovate, out- educate, and out-build our competitors" in an bid to win the global competition.

"But as we work with you to make America a better place to do business, ask yourselves what you can do for America. Ask yourselves what you can do to hire American workers, to support the American economy, and to invest in this nation," he said in former President Kennedy-style remarks.

He prodded U.S. entrepreneurs sitting on nearly 2 trillion U.S. dollars on their balance sheets without adding investment in the nation to get off the sidelines and expand their investment, calling it "the time to invest in America".

With the U.S. industrial output and economy expanding for nearly two years at a nearly jobless-recovery pace, the labor market had been a stubborn laggard. Economists held that key reasons underlying U.S. entrepreneurs' reluctance to add long-term payrolls included uncertainties of the economic recovery and spiking commodity prices that had eaten into their profit margins.

Obama noted that the United States still remained the world's " largest and most vibrant" economy, with the most productive workers, best universities and freest markets, adding that the American industry was the source of the most dynamic companies and most ingenious entrepreneurs.

"But we also know that with the march of technology over the last few decades, the competition for jobs and businesses has grown fierce," he said.

Obama stressed that the government was endeavoring to remove " outdated and unnecessary regulations", defended the health care and financial regulation overhauls, but urged U.S. businesses to do their shares for the economic recovery, as they must recognize that there were some "safeguards and standards" necessary to protect American people from harm or exploitation.

"The perils of too much regulation are matched by the dangers of too little. We saw that in the financial crisis, where the absence of sound rules of the road was hardly good for business," he added.