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Haiti PM in Fla.
to tout post-quake reconstruction
By
JENNIFER KAY (AP) – 2
hours ago
MIAMI BEACH, Fla.
— Haiti's prime minister visited Florida on
Tuesday seeking potential investors for an
estimated $5.3-billion in rebuilding projects he
is overseeing along with Bill Clinton in the
earthquake-ravaged nation.
Jean-Max
Bellerive said major financing and construction
contracts will be issued shortly and some
smaller contracts for road rebuilding have
already been signed as the Caribbean country
seeks to recover from the Jan. 12 quake that
devastated Haiti's capital.
Bellerive sought
to assure potential investors that corruption
and bureacratic red tape pre-dating the quake
have been addressed, that rebuilding will spur
jobs' creation and that Haiti's leaders are
committed to holding presidential and
parliamentary elections later this year.
"People know
Haiti, and they know Haiti badly. I'm here to
stop that," Bellerive told The Associated
Press in an interview in which he also sought to
boost Haiti's image.
Haitian President
Rene Preval's five-year term expires Feb. 7,
2010, though the country issued a law in May
allowing an extension of his term up to three
months if the elections are not held as
scheduled Nov. 28.
Bellerive
reiterated Preval's pledge to abide by that
timetable and noted that investor confidence is
closely linked to unblemished elections.
"If we don't
have transparent elections, we won't have
investment, either," he said. "It's
one deal."
Bellerive and
former U.S. president Clinton, presently the
U.N. special envoy to Haiti, will oversee the
more than $5 billion in donor pledges for the
next 18 months.
Bellerive touted
economic opportunities in Haiti despite the
quake that struck what is the poorest country in
the Western hemisphere.
Those
opportunities include trade breaks for Haiti's
textile industry, which have been extended since
the quake through 2020, he said. Textiles and
apparel are Haiti's most important export to the
United States, with apparel exports reaching
$513 million last year.
Bellerive also
said hundreds of millions of dollars in debts
canceled by the World Bank, the Inter-American
Development Bank and the International Monetary
Fund are not handouts, but constitute
recognition of Haiti's efforts to tackle
corruption and encourage investment.
"They
recognize that we fight corruption, that we are
a transparent government," he said.
"It's the main reason, if not the sole
reason, that they erased the debt — not
because of the earthquake."
Builders have
complained about delays at the ports and Haiti's
border with the Dominican Republic holding up
construction. Even before the quake leveled most
of the country's capital, navigating Haiti's
complicated, corruption-riddled customs system
was difficult.
The quake killed
as many as 300,000 people and destroyed the
presidential palace, the port and about 105,000
homes, 1,300 schools and 50 hospitals.
About 1.5 million
Haitians remain homeless. Thousands of homes are
deemed safe, but tent cities are growing as many
are unable to secure permanent housing.
Meanwhile, little
of the pledged international support — some
$10 billion over the next decade — has been
released so far. Some of the aid is awaiting
legislative approval, while logistical and legal
issues remain to removing the rubble of private
homes whose owners cannot be located.
Bellerive
downplayed the delays.
"There are a
lot of small problems," he said. "What
is happening (is) we are progressing — slowly,
but we are progressing." |
