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Haiti nation that was destroyed ater the earthquake in January and is the poorest
country o the region.
The issue is not so much in obtaining humanitarian help and money because,
ortunately, the international community has shown its solidarity, and we will speak about
this having speciic updates on what really has happened with that help.
But now, we ocus our attention on how to assist that nation as the international
community through the states, through the private sector, recognizing an enormous
social responsibility in assisting this process o growth and, o course, o assistance in the
reconstruction on the short and medium term basis or Haiti.
Our thanks to our panelists.
It's an honor to have you here with us and I would like to start with the president o
Dominican Republic, Mister ernandez, who has had a undamental role in this role.
You have been considered as a great leader and acilitator amongst other things because
very little is understood the diicult situation that you have had being a neighbor, being a
brother nation that you share the same island in the sense, and that you have elt the
problem very closely.
I would like to ask you, Mister President, your relections as to what this immediate
solution, in act, o what happened on basis o this humanitarian basis, on this short term
basis, and what is the present panorama.
Thank you very much or you very kind words.
I believe that the case o Haiti brings us to relect
as to the ragility o the human condition.
Everything that took place in Haiti happened in barely 35 seconds and in 35 seconds two
hundred and ity thousand people lost their lives.
In 35 seconds one million people were let homeless.
In 35 seconds a hundred and twenty percent o the GDP o Haiti collapsed.
So I think that when one meditates on these matters o what happened in 35 seconds, we
ind the human tragedy o epic proportions and, o course, this required an immediate
assistance on part o the people there to be able to take care o this element.
As we share the same island, Espa�ola, it was logical and relative that act o common
cause, we should be the irst country to be present.
The next day, that is 13th o January, there was Dominican presence on the Haitian side.
That presence was established through a solitary and common cause with medication,
with medicines, with ood, with drinking water, with heavy machinery to be able to
remove all o the destroyed, the rescue o body and wounded people who were sent to
Dominican Republic hospitals.
Evidently, I was there personally directing this in the irst 24 hours o this event and the
panorama that we had is something that was awesome.
We saw the president communications had collapsed.
The presidential palace in Port-au-Prince had succumbed and, thereore, the Court o
Justice, the venue o parliament, the main church, cultural centers, universities, 90
percent o the physical inrastructure had collapsed.
A thousand two hundred schools had disappeared.
So this is a situation o such a magnitude, o such dimensions.
We've never been -- lived this except in 35 seconds.
So there was immediate response.
The world became solitary with Haiti.
It came rom all the place.
We had great deal o help with Haiti, multilateral organizations.
Luis Alberto Moreno o IDB was there, the World Bank, all the world was there.
And United Nations had also a catastrophe in large part o its personnel.
The people who were heading the MINUSTAH, which is the national movement
o United Nations in security, saety, died at that tragedy,
so these were really the initial moments.
O course, at this time we must start to think in the second stage that deals with the
recovery, the reconstruction, and coming back to sustained economic growth in Haiti.
And on this we've had several meetings.
The irst one was in Santo Domingo, a second one in Montreal with the group, and
third one has recently been in New York.
And we will be present at the summit, Euro-Latin American-Caribbean, in May and
we will conclude in Santo Domingo on June 2 with a world conerence as to the uture o
Haiti where we will have speciic initiatives, projects, and plans how to inance in a ten
year term the recovery and the reconstruction o Haiti.
Precisely at this point I would like to ask Luis Alberto Moreno, president o the
Inter-American Development Bank.
Doctor Moreno, could you please also comment as leader o this region that you
have had to somehow organize how this resource is going to be channeled and carry
out this reconstruction process or Haiti.
How does this integration process go in the dierent levels and which would be or you
the conclusions o the recent conerence that was held some weeks ago in New York?
Well, I think that President ernandez has made a very excellent summary o the
challenges o Haiti, what the disaster means, what Haiti aced.
But I think there is also another issue that we must recognize, Mister ernandez, how he
as president and his government reacted.
I've always known rom his personal concern or Haiti, but there were historical tensions
and there are many sociological studies that when there is a situation o this type o
natural disasters, people are willing to overcome things and watch things rom a
dierent ocus.
I think that thanks to the leadership o President ernandez today those dierences
that existed in the past between Haiti and Dominican Republic have become a great
strength and this speaks well o his leadership and his government.
The second part o this is that, as was said by the President, the cost o reconstructing
Haiti represent approximately a hundred and twenty percent o the GDP o Haiti which is
what has been done till date.
Basically, gathering all o the experiences that we used in other nations and speciically
one o the very successul ones in Colombia or the case o the ORE and another part in
Asia, in Indonesia, where also with the tsunami there was another very interesting
experience.
How is this going to work? On the way several donors have established a und and
they will contribute resources and an agency, development agency that will have a counsel
with President Clinton as the representative o the United Nations and the irst minister o
Haiti.
And then we will have a technical group that basically has the responsibility o -- in
addition to being represented as should be the case by person rom Haiti, it must
establish the way in which the sequence will take orth or the various projects that will
help us to reconigure Haiti. We know the irst resources that were made
available last week in New York are in the neighborhood o maybe ive billion dollars.
We cannot spend them all at the same time.
I we would do so, not only the problem o the capacity o absorption o the country, but we
would be generating a Dutch disease so we see that one o the problems are they're very
high transaction costs amongst other things.
Because another undamental subject is to be into strengthen the government o Haiti.
I this reconiguration process does not conclude, and this is something or many
years in strengthening government, we will have achieved anything.
So we must learn o the lessons o the past on how to help Haiti.
On the other hand, there are about seven thousand NGOs in Haiti.
We have been making a study to determine the number o NGOs that are working there
but in the measure that these are active, in the measure that 80 percent o education is
private not knowing what type o quality per country with 400 dollars per capita income
and the cost o a hundred and twenty dollars so nobody knows what is the nature o
education.
So there's a great opportunity starting a completely new level o education which
President ernandez was mentioning.
So this is one o the great challenges or the international community that is going to
require a great deal o collaboration and, above all, the multiple emergencies and
needs that Haiti has o this reconiguration process.
I would now like to present to you ather Joseph Philippe, who is the ounder o
onkoze in Haiti.
He can provide us with a perspective rom the site and where they have suered during
these very harsh weeks, painul.
Thank you very much or accompanying us.
I would like to ask you -- question would be these microcredit programs, or example,
what is the approach that you will give this to transorm people rom the poor lie? What
are the characteristics o the Haitian people -- characteristics o the Haitian people, what
would you says, since you have had experience with microinance and other
sectors and working to try to transorm the people o poor people lie?
Thank you or this opportunity.
Thank you, Mister President ernandez and Mister Moreno, or your good summary and
your advocacy in avor o Haiti.
I would like to say that here I mainly represent the grassroots organizations in
Haiti, contrarily, the IM MI Section.
And you need to realize, irst, Haiti is the mode o reedom, La Mare, Dela Liberta,
and El Mundo.
And Haiti has been disregarded because o its ight against slavery in the 19th century
which was the main business.
But Haiti has been hit by this earthquake.
or us, it's like the beginning o a new humanity, the beginning o a new creation in
Haiti.
And we are very thankul to the panelists who are here or their solidarity, or the
hospitality o the Colombian people, the Colombian president, and the Schwab
oundation or having us here.
Mysel, I am the ounder o a peasant organization called AP, the Association o
the Peasant o ondwa.
And we have a DVD available online or this organization.
It's ondwa, -O-N-D-W-A, dot org.
And also this organization as a website, aphaiti dot org.
Two things I want to share with you.
The irst one is how to rebuild Haiti rom the bottom up to the top today ater the
earthquake.
How to rebuild Haiti rom the bottom up to the top.
We need to look at the spirit o this rebuilding up the country.
And as we said, we have 570 rural communities in Haiti.
They have been exclude even by the Haitian government.
They don't have services rom the government in Haiti.
And i we have to rebuild Haiti now, we have to take into account the democratic
principles, the Christian values, and good governance.
And now, since this morning and yesterday, we have been talking a lot about public and
private partnership.
I want to share with you how we see that in Haiti.
And or us public and private partnership should start rom the bottom.
Like in Haiti is a well organized country.
We have a lot o peasant organizations.
We have a lot o youth movement.
We have a lot o women organization.
And as you -- we will say it later -- onkoze is in touch with two hundred
thousand people all over the country as a national organization.
And to talk about public and private partnership rom the bottom up o Haiti we're
talking about the local organization.
Private or us it's all o the local organizations which can develop a kind o platorm among
themselves.
And then we have the elected oicers.
We call them Azek, A-Z-E-K, Kazek, K-A-Z-E-K.
They are elected like the president is elected in the country.
But most o the times they are elected they are not given any inancial means to
participate in the -- to respond to the needs o their people.
And in those communities we have specialist, development specialist working in
those communities.
And we want in the process o rebuilding up the country or those three categories to be
represented.
And in 2008 we organized or the irst time the Peasant National Congress in Haiti and
the main request was to ask the government to create a Ministry or Peasant Aairs which
will provide basic services to people living in the countryside o Haiti.
And that means the same unit we have at the community level.
We should have the same thing at the city level, at the departmental level, and at the
national level.
This is a way to make sure that public and private alliances work together.
And also or the international community which wants to help, we think that a --
- ather. We think that the organizations, the local
organizations they should be include in the management o the morning -- o the money
given to Haiti.
Now, coming back to your question -Yes.
Yes, ather. or us a microinance, a means to empower
economic leader people, especially the organized people.
As we said earlier, Haiti is a well organized country, but very soon -- 16 years ago we
realized that economy is the one which wins the political power.
And in Haiti it happens that the wealth o the country was in the hands o a ew amilies.
And like this morning we were talking about equality.
- Yes.
You know, access to services or the poor.
But or us talking about building o a democracy, we have to think about inancial
rights o the poor.
How can the poor get access to inancial services? And, also, as the director o ocus
study, earlier in her presentation this morning, Mrs.
Anne Hasting, we cannot -- microinance it's not enough to solve the problem o the poor.
ather, let me go back with you in a couple o minutes to talk about other possible
ormulas exactly to try to transorm poorest people lie.
I would like to go now with -- - Thank you.
Prime Minister o Barbados, Mister David John Howard Thompson.
And I would like to ask you since, well, you are speaking exactly rom the richest and
one o the most prosperous islands o the Caribbean.
What is the look you have towards the Haiti case, the poorest island and besides
devastated by this earthquake? What is exactly the way how you see -- is it possible
to ind a way or reconstruction and or -- in long term growth or Haiti?
Thank you very much, moderator.
This is one o the issues o which we have been agonizing.
And when I say we, I reer to CARICOM.
Haiti is a member o CARICOM.
We consider it to be a very important member not only rom the historical
perspective as was just mentioned, and we consider that to be critical, but also in the
sense that it has a large population and we think that there must be some way in which
we can seek to better integrate Haiti into our region.
But this is also a herculean task because, obviously, the economy has collapsed.
And the several meetings that I have attended, I went to the one in Dominican
Republic which the president did an excellent job in those early stages o identiying the
needs at that point, even beore the catastrophe, IDB has a very important
meeting in Port-au-Prince on, I think, during your 50th anniversary in which we looked at
the needs and then subsequent to that the recent meeting in Cancun and on our
occasions.
On each occasion the immediate needs had changed.
That may say to us that there is a need on the ground or us to rebuild the government
structures in Haiti and to have a three stage plan or its redevelopment that is consistent
with what the people o Haiti want but is also consistent with how the resources are going
to be applied.
So that at the end o the meetings when we meet as a group in CARICOM despite our
pledges, despite the gravity o our concern and so on, despite the mobilizing o
resources -- - Yes.
The critical issue is what can we do to ensure that the capacity is there to deliver?
One o the meetings we went to recently -- and I mean the administrative capacity.
One o the meetings that we went to recently the issue was raised about how the physical
development will take place because, obviously, we are not simply rebuilding what
was there at the time o the catastrophe but, as I understood the desire o the
government, they wanted to see a *** in the population out o the city and they wanted to
do some other kinds o social engineering, which is again a very signiicant task.
So we applied ourselves to that exercise by oering, or example, a core o retired public
oicers who've had experience and by oering other kinds o supports which would
assist in the process.
We think this is one o the best ways in which we can help Haiti through this
exercise.
-- disaster itsel but something as terrible this would happen and what can you do at
that time.
And I think that in that sense we've also participated not only with donations to the
Red Cross but very importantly with donations in and water, especially coming
rom Dominican Republic, which was the place where we could do so.
And our system dedicated ull production o stage, the production exclusively bottling
water to be able to send it to Haiti.
But a disaster o this magnitude that brings about --
-- company in our case o organizations such as Inter-American Development Bank,
organizations, non-governmental organization o the Haitian government, no
doubt, to try to create a sustainable industry or bottling mango juice in Haiti.
Our irst objective is to be able to obtain in the coming ive years to be able to have
these twenty ive thousand amilies as you had mentioned in the beginning that these
twenty ive thousand amilies during these ive years the objective would be to double
their income and, thereore, improve their quality o lie.
This is a project that includes in certain joint way not only private enterprise but other
organization which are -- or example the IDB.
And I think that, basically, this is the way that we can do it.
I think that alone or separately no sector could achieve anything.
I would now like to greet Mister Lorenzo and also he's the Chie Executive Oicer o Polar
Enterprises rom Venezuela.
We're speaking about a global company but has its roots in Latin America.
Which would be your vision, Mister Mendoza, regarding this commitment as
such o the private companies? We are speaking o Latin American private
companies in this reconstruction.
Well, thank you very much.
irst, well, we must say is that Haiti in some way comes to the world map on 12th o
January.
As a matter o act, it is a country where 40 percent o its population under 15 years o
age, where 50 percent o the children less than 15 years do not know how to read or
write, where 54 percent o the children o the amilies live with less than a dollar a day, 80
percent with less than two dollars a day.
So they are on the below the line o poverty where hal the people do not have access to
education, where hal the people do not access to drinking water.
So they're series o actors that in Haiti were prior to this disaster, the tremendous
disaster, such as the case o the January 12th earthquake.
I'll begin by here because one o the things that I think is very important to have this
vision in Latin America is to have that -- Haiti is part o our continent.
It is very close to our history.
And the reality is that we had been very timid in understanding this reality or worrying
about that.
Recently, there has been a overwhelming commitment regarding Haiti.
It's really impressive how Latin American countries have all turned towards Haiti ater
the earthquake, NG, private companies and channeled, politicians, and somehow or other
with perhaps some exceptions because we must always keep that in mind but in
diplomatic terms on the multilateral basis.
But somehow I understand that this is ater 12th January that this comes to be true.
rom private enterprise they're elementary things.
When we have an economy such as Haiti where in agricultural terms they are being
used where their main contributions to the GDP is agricultural activity and there's no
investment or employment.
This must be the main ocus or development.
I there is no progress, there is no opportunities.
One o the elementary processes that must take place to eliminate taris and barriers,
customs barriers that may exist should be erased ully and have the political will and
somehow open up on the matter o the denomination o origin o a country's rules o
origin be clariied.
And we should have a meeting that should not take a great deal o time on the basis
they have serious situation.
And this allows us to be able to deal immediately with certain elements that will
bring prosperous investment.
I share what the ather was mentioning that or the eects o building an alliance, private
sector and public sector with a country we need to work rom the grassroots up.
And I would say that the essential part is that private enterprise should be present there.
These challenges that were set orth, President Preval said it requires three point
nine billion dollars or the initial phase the next irst two years.
At the recent conerence in New York the data were ive point three million dollars on
the irst three years and over ten million dollars in the next years.
Private enterprise has been a strong contributor to reach these igures.
We're not speaking only o governments o the most important elements.
The European community, United States, Brazil in our continent, plus all that American
countries, have provided a co-responsibility in the cords or their size and capacity.
But private enterprise has been very active in this process and it seem an investment
process towards the unders being established.
And the second contribution o the private enterprise will be administered by the World
Bank should have at that board people rom private sector that somehow will not have
any sort o commitments in the sense o having speciic interest o what will be with
the assignment o those unds and sort o a very clear oath on part o the company's
participating on this or the CEOs that are working there willing to donate our time and
interest.
That to channel these rosters in an optimal manner, I think resources must start to low
and I think the conerence is what is happening in Haiti are past and now we must
work on how instead o the where.
I resources do not low, Haiti is simply going to become a much greater problem or
humanity and a disaster or the continent as a lack o action.
The commitment o providing the resources and I was talking with Luis Alberto the
capacity that IDB has, the operation capacity that carry this orth is now being present.
But enterprise must invest and investing with alternatives with the local government
established the necessary conditions or this to take place so that there is legal security,
the rule o law.
I don't think we can see Haiti as a sort o returned business area.
I think that the companies are in the continent, must consider this as a human
commitment.
And many things and I ully coincide that the relations o employment is one o the most
important ones that we have to develop but it's not the only one that we have.
I somehow we believe that this is the only path to help the development o our
countries, unortunately, in Haiti this is not going to work because which came irst, the
chicken or the egg.
I think the irst, we have to direct investments toward the sectors.
With Haiti it has real possibilities.
I you take these trade barriers and somehow have these rules o origin o the
country and open it up or -- we will begin to have this.
I eel very enthusiastic with the new relations in Haiti.
With President Clinton we spoke o this in Davos and we've all seen the participation o
wave o young leaders group where we have a series o very important initiatives or Haiti.
And we can comment on this later. Thank you.
I would now like to ask the President o the Dominican Republic.
How do you see this position o Mister Mendoza about this political will that is
required to be able to stimulate investment in Haiti, the reaction vis-�-vis this -- what is
your point o view on this matter, sir? I'm sorry.
I think we are having basically problems, some problems.
Could you please comment with reerence to the position that Mister Mendoza has
mentioned, the need o having the political will as such and to stimulate investment as a
possible dream in Haiti. No doubt I think o the private world.
Lorenzo was saying that we have to do something to bring investment and then
we're going to one o the aspects that has been put orward which is the rehab and the
recovery o Haiti, not only in terms o the physical inrastructure, it also has to do with
governance with the creation o our rule o law and a transparent system that will be
trustworthy, that will inspire conidence.
How big the progress or the uture cannot depend only on donations, aid, cooperation,
or solidarity that could come rom outside.
A country itsel needs to be viable.
And in order or it to be viable it needs to have institutions, it needs to have a reliable
leader, a system or social and economic development, a system or scientiic
development.
And it is the combination o all o these actors which will attract a private investment
or will attract public and private alliances that will allow the country to have sustainable
development in the middle and short term. I think that the Haitian authorities are very
aware o what we're saying here.
And we have designed a development, long term plan, which embraces all o these
aspects.
It talks about institutional strengthening in Haiti in order to be able to provide all o the
inputs that the private sector needs and to be able to carry orward all o the investments.
Investments have to be multiaceted.
O course, we have private investment or the physical inrastructure o the country.
We need to build roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, public buildings.
All these needs investment by the private sector, but then we need to provide services.
We need ood industries.
We need all kinds o companies and they will have to work in Haiti to aid in the
reconstruction process.
Well, all these aspects are very important because they give Haiti the opportunity to
rise rom the ruins and it is also an opportunity or private companies to be able
to carry out proitable investments.
This is, in other words, an entrepreneurial opportunity or the private sector and it's an
important thing or oreign investment because this is a country that is going
through its reconstruction.
I think that companies need to go to Haiti but they need to think, o course, about
proitability.
That's always an important actor.
But they also have to think about corporate social responsibility and this corporate social
responsibility needs to be even urther underscored in Haiti's case.
In the case o this social responsibility the main topic in Haiti would have to do with the
environment. Haiti, especially, we compare Haiti to the
Dominican Republic, you know, they're on the same island.
Well, Haiti seems to be a devastated country rom the environment point o view.
There is a deorestation process o which it's eroding o the soil o Haiti and one can see
this when hurricanes hit Haiti then their loods, because the top soil in Haiti has been
-- has become barren in Haiti, so even slight rain becomes catastrophic lood.
So we need to do a reorestation process there and we need to restore the top soil.
We need to restore the soil o Haiti and all these will require a great deal o participation
on the part o a corporate social project.
O course, there are other practices that have to do with use o wood or or turning
wood into coal.
We are going to need to establish new practices or cooking ood so that people
there will not have to resort to the wood that they get rom the orest because this is what
they've been doing or a long time and this is worth elling all these trees.
So the new companies that come into Haiti have to keep in mind that they need to
cooperate in projects o such a project -- -- and some o what he's described are
some exits to the situation especially speaking up the environmental situation,
environment. Thank you, Mister President.
I think, as we said, there are times in Haiti we are protecting the cities against the lood but
the watershed, the head o the watershed is in the hill.
That means i we don't plant trees in the top o the mountains, it's a waste o time, waste
o resources.
Like you know the place I am working in, mainly, it's in the locality called ondwa and
whenever it rains, Leogane, which is the closest city rom our place, there is a lood in
Leogane.
Why that? It is because ondwa is in the top o the mountain.
The people cut a lot o trees and that -- there is a lood in Leogane.
But that means the people who are cutting trees we don't -- we cannot ask them just
stop to plant trees.
We have to address their needs.
We have to make sure that they have access to water, to basic education, to health
care, to wood, to all o the basic social needs.
Otherwise, we are washing our hands. And as I think -- as I said earlier, the main
approach is how we can strengthen the government itsel.
Like a lot o people are criticizing the government like the government is
corrupted, but how to strengthen the government to get good result.
And also, as we said earlier, we have three main entities working together, but they are
isolated rom each other.
We have the international NGOs.
We have the local organizations.
We have the government.
They are not working together.
That's why we think we need to ind a bridge.
Probably IDB can help us not only to inance the cost o bringing together the local
organizations, the international NGOs, and the government to sit down together on a
table to see how at best we can rebuild the country together.
And also we know that we have a lot o international organizations, a lot o countries
which want to help.
IDB might be the best channel, you know, to help us dealing with that.
I would like to ask the president o the IDB, Mister Moreno, about a point that Mister
Mendoza pointed out which is exactly the speed to unblock those sources so that
these resources can reach Haiti as soon as possible.
But there is that international bureaucracy and there are delays because o this
bureaucracy.
So what can the IDB do in order to release these unds so that you can start
reconstruction in Haiti as soon as possible? No doubt international cooperation has been
very good and yet there is a great deal o things that can still be done in order to
improve the delivery o aid to Haiti.
The act that it is being done around one main entity we can put some order into the
sequence that is ruling over the project. What have we learned at the IDB? Basically,
we need a very strong team on site.
Approximately three years ago we decided to signiicantly increase the number o
proessionals that the bank had in Haiti.
Why? Because we had approved credits in the amount o 50 million dollars to just give
you a -- and the disbursements were not being carried out and there were problems
within the Haitian government in terms o their executing units in order to be able to
bring this monies to Haiti.
So we worked on that problem and we began to do our disbursements, more than 70
million dollars, and these unds were being allotted to water projects, power projects,
avoiding loods, and also they were being destined to the general budget o Haiti, in
other words, resources so that the government can pay or the police orce,
teachers, et cetera, basic services that any country needs.
So we do indeed need a better coordination o the international community and, basically,
this is what we're trying to achieve through this new structure because through this multi
donor o und is a sort o DNA where we can identiy the projects and the disbursements
will be produced immediately so that the projects can be executed as quickly as
possible. I think that this is just o the problem.
The best social policy is to generate jobs.
That's really -- they just do everything because this will lead to sustainable
development o the private sector.
We had the honor to participate in a meeting with Coca-Cola and we had a meeting in
Davos.
I met with the president o Coca-Cola.
We launched a project in Haiti with a great deal o vigor by Coca-Cola using the
marketing power that companies such as Coca-Cola has so that they can go rom the
orchard to the inal consumer and we can take a shortcut so that resources are not
wasted on intermediaries, et cetera, and thus, we generate an added demand which
is very signiicant.
Something that Lorenzo says I think was very important.
Haiti has the best trade agreement with the United States today and it would be
wonderul i the whole world could have the best trade agreement with Haiti.
Why? So that we can transer production to Haiti.
I was talking to President ernandez one day and he brought up an idea which has been
going around in my mind.
I was thinking about value chain that sort o comes to an end in Puerto Rico.
But we can increase the lengths in this chain and I think this is an important idea that we
should develop.
President ernandez was talking about some o these unds which have tax advantages in
terms o deposits in the United States.
So the question is what are the most important areas in the private sector? No
doubt, the agricultural area.
This is a country where 60 percent o the population is a rural population.
There are some land problems but we can work on this.
We can plant ruits, coee, we can create orchards, and all these can have value
added then we can work on textiles and garments -- garment industry.
So the United States is trying to implement what we call preerences in terms o taris
or product going into the United States.
These taris are at zero but i this done by other countries as well, reduce taris, then
Haiti could have access to all these markets, especially, the markets o the United States.
We're looking into companies that could generate between twenty or twenty ive
thousand employments.
And then we need to work on the tourist area.
This is very interesting.
One moves over to the Dominican Republic, one can see the tourist development that has
taken place in the Dominican Republic.
It is incredible and natural destination o many tourists.
Well, they could go to Haiti because Haiti would be cheaper and tourist operators could
work.
As they're working in Dominican Republic, they can also work or Haiti and all these
would generate sustainable development.
We must set targets in terms o how many jobs we need to generate and only jobs will
really help Haiti because, well, perhaps international community sending a lot o
resources and such as onkoze they're sending resources.
Also, Haitians are sending -- Haitians who live outside o Haiti are also sending
resources.
All these are very important actors o the economy.
But we need to generate jobs anyway because that will make the development
sustainable.
Mister Moreno asked Mister David John Howard Thompson the ollowing --
-- the best commercial agreement with the United States.
But the main and most interesting objective would be that the whole world will have the
same type o agreement with Haiti.
What are your thoughts about that relection o Mister Moreno?
The translation? Again, I'm sorry.
I didn't get what you were saying.
I was saying that Mister Moreno has pointed out something very interesting.
He was saying that Haiti's got the best commercial agreement with the world --
excuse me, with the United States. - Right.
But it would be so wonderul and great i the whole world would have the best commercial
agreement with Haiti.
What would be your comments about what Mister Moreno pointed out? I'm sorry.
I mean, o the cu, I would say, yeah.
Barbados would like that too.
But we're talking about Haiti and the circumstances are a lot dierent.
I think the heart o the issue though, which is something that I'm not sure we've been able
to solve, is which comes irst, the -- what is the platorm that is going to support private
sector involvement and investment and that kind o thing? And does Haiti currently have
in place the structures, the administrative and other structures that can eectively
acilitate the new private sector investment, or are we still in the disaster phase?
And that's why I'm saying that rom our point o view in CARICOM we eel that there have
to be three phases, the disaster recovery phase, and that has to have in a sense a
inal end so that the economy can start then to perorm again, the government can start to
raise revenue and do the things that normal administrations have to do as part o the
administrative structure and to put in place the transparency to acilitate the new
initiatives in that post catastrophe phase.
Now, when does that phase start? And we have to ind a way to get that right so that
private sector investment -- I mean, the initiatives that have been talked about today
are very important, but many o them low rom the disaster itsel.
What we need to try to do is get Haiti to the stage where it has a settled economic
environment, where it can naturally attract investment, and where the physical and
other development that has taken place is consistent with the desires o the people who
live in Haiti.
And that is a very diicult task.
I don't think we've spent enough, really, time even in all o our discussions on how we can
achieve that.
And I think we were searching to train yet there but we must put that at the oreront o
the agenda so that, as I said, once again Haiti can play its critical role as a normal
nation unctioning outside o that catastrophe environment.
Mister Reyes, rom the private sector, how do you see the possibility o being able to
participate in the more precise way? Are there administrative structures or are we still
in the post disaster stage? What does a private sector think about this?
We know answer your question, but I also want to make a couple o comments
because I think you're giving precise examples about some o the concerns that
have been put orward here in the panel, or instance, the sense o urgency, speed, and,
certainly, about that reorestation process.
The idea o being able to help twenty ive thousand amilies and the basic idea to be
able to help them through mango industry, we have to start planting the trees in a
sustainable way and we need to be more riendly towards the environment by good
usage o water, et cetera.
This not only has a multiplying eect on employment, but also it also has a great
eect on orests and the adequate use o natural Haitian resources.
Mango, or instance, is natural resource in Haiti.
Nonetheless, the -- there is an enormous amount o mangoes that get lost on the way
as the President -- as President Luis was saying about this process.
This is one o the things.
And then we have a sense o urgency that was mentioned here.
One o the most visible parts o the project the Haiti hope, and Luis Alberto was talking
about this as well, is the creation o a product, a product that is being sold.
It is being sold today in the United States.
We are talking about Mango Light.
This is a rereshing juice and all o the proits rom the sales o this mango juice will be put
into the project o rebuilding Haiti.
All o the proits will be put in to that project.
So what I want to emphasize in terms o the sense o urgency is that rom the moment we
started to talk about this which is exactly seven weeks ago and i we carry this
orward, to this moment when this is actually being implemented, well, it's taken seven
weeks or this to happen.
So there is the possibility o carrying orward all o these actions.
I think we can achieve this.
So we work together and I think we can all contribute to improving the situation in Haiti.
So now I'm going to answer your question.
Yes, there are many barriers.
They exist and they will always exist but they're all surmountable.
I we join eorts, we will all be able to get over the barriers.
Mister Mendoza I would like to hear your opinion.
rom Polar, what do you think about Haiti? Lorenzo Mendoza: rom the Polar point o
view we have been involved in certain stage.
We have been sending tons and tons o ood.
We have agreements with Caritas and we are helping with child nutrition.
This is an area where we're going to be aiding Haiti.
And the investment part, well, this has to do with -- this is an agricultural country and as
Luis Alberto was saying, in terms o taris, which is very important thing in Latin
America, one thing is to talk about North America and then South America.
So how can we make sure that not only where there will be a rule o law but a
production such that companies will really see in Haiti a clear investment opportunity.
I want to say that the part in Haiti is not going to come to an end in the short term.
It's -- Haiti has a huge deep bag crisis and it does require aid, assistance, and this is why
we have multilateral NGOs or NGOs or social development or development, or
investment.
All these comes rom the private sector, but the private sector needs to understand that
the proit associated to Haiti cannot be seen rom the same perspective as one could
apply to other economies.
Then once again we have to ask what comes irst, the chicken or the egg.
I think long term investments in Haiti will require a content o corporate responsibility
by the private sector.
I do not see any other way or the private sector to become involved in Haiti i it is not
done through long term investment.
It's an altruistic eort.
It might sound a little hard to understand but it is impossible to do things i we don't see
this.
Arica has been successul in many countries because o the aid that has been
given to Arica, but because projects has been set up by thinking about very long term
returns.
I think non-governmental NGOs and the private sector can expedite the timerames in
Haiti or many years.
And this has nothing to do with the earthquake.
But I want to say that governments have their own protocol.
They have their voters and their people and their realities, their own realities in Latin
America.
And because o this they have restricted budgets and they cannot always be as
solidarity as they would like to be whether they do this through multilateral organizations
or other organizations.
But companies have a dierent perspective.
We can take risks because somewhat we have been signiicantly beneited thanks to
the companies that we manage.
So the topic o returns in Haiti we've looked at the returns rom an orthodox point o view,
well, this is not going to happen.
We need to think very long term.
We think -- we must think about social responsibility investments and, hopeully, the
private industry will summon executives and people that are transparent, that have an
impeccable reputation, and that they will be really committed in a allotting resources to
Haiti through whatever mechanism Haiti decides to use because, o course, they
have to make sure they understand what priorities they have.
The private enterprises have a capacity to produce results and these results could be
very beneicial to Haiti.
We would like to open up a possibility or the participants in this orum to ask questions to
the panel members. Alicia Barcena, the ECLA executive
secretary wanted to make a couple o comments and one is addressed to
President Leonel ernandez.
One o the exercises that we did with Dominican Republic was called Dominican
Republic 2030, and I do not know, Mister President, i you would think it would be
timely to do an exercise o this nature or Haiti.
How? Here there was an earthquake which
accumulated six times the cost o what had happened in 2004.
And we participated in an assessment with the IDB and the like to like cost.
In other words, i we were to rebuild everything just as they were beore the
earthquake, the international community said, well, well -- they weren't pursuing like
to like.
They wanted to do something dierent and they thought twelve thousand ive hundred
million dollars -- billion dollars was estimated.
This is a way to do things dierently.
Then the international immunity oered ive thousand -- ive billion or their short term.
But what is lacking here is a long term plan which would allow us to place all the pieces
o the puzzle in the right place and ask ourselves who's going to beneit rom this in
IT, the tourist sector, the industrial sector? What is the best productive strategy that will
allow the whole country to be reconstructed as o or starting with Port-au-Prince
because the earthquake really hit Port-au-Prince very, very hard? And i this
is going to trigger development or the country, are we going to think about a new
land use plan? And I'm not talking about dominance by the state.
We're not talking about this kind o dilemmas at the moment, but it is important to say that
something else is lacking in Haiti and that is we think -- you must think about the social
tissue o Haiti so that we can implement the bottom up approach.
At the ECLA we have seen that one thing that is lacking in Haiti is very simple.
That is a population census.
We need to do a survey o households to see where people are located, how many
people there are in each household.
And we have thought that this is a very urgent project and the best institution in Haiti
today is the Statistics Institute with which we work.
So we need to start to rebuild institutions in Haiti.
Some institutions are already there so we can start with them.
And one o the best institutions that are already there is the Statistics Institution so
my suggestion is to do a census.
We can do a survey o households.
We can do this with the IDB.
And we could apply a 2030 plan.
Thank you very much. Mister President, would you like to make a
comment on this proposal? Yes, o course.
But, irst o all, I would like to congratulate Alicia or making this recommendation, and I
have to say that with our Minister o Economics who is sitting next to you, we had
already talked about this topic.
In our experience at the Dominican Republic and because o the inancial global crisis, we
tackled this process in two ways.
irst o all, we need to think about democratic governance and vis-�-vis the
threat or a small economy by a inancial crisis.
So we decided to summon an international summit and we called up the summit o
national unity vis-�-vis the global economic crisis.
And in that summit we summoned the lie orces o society and we agreed about the
main topics that we needed to tackle in order to abate or mitigate the impact o such
catastrophe.
So we started to think long term.
And we have designed jointly with ECLA and with the proposal or Dominican Republic, the
2030 proposal, we started to think about structural, economic, social, political,
scientiic, technological, cultural projects or Dominican Republic in the next 30 years.
And I think the perspective that we have in ront o us is to look into the uture, to have
oresight, and this oresight will help us to ind what kind o country we want to create.
I think Haiti needs this oresight, this vision towards the uture so that they can
determine which are the priority areas that need to be developed and what are the
diiculties that may arise in trying to achieve this project.
And here I want to say something and perhaps this is so that you can understand
what I'm saying better.
Perhaps what am I saying, we are going to say that Haiti is a country that needs
agricultural development.
It needs to develop its agricultural sector.
This is a very good statement but why isn't this happening? Well, it's not happening
because the devil is in the details and we're not paying enough attention to this.
So let's think that we're going to plant rice, or instance.
In the Dominican Republic the rice that we consume is planted by Haitians, but Haitians
import all o the rice they consume.
Why? Because there is a distortion world trade problem.
They import.
Haiti imports subsidized rice and this subsidized rice is cheaper than the rice that
the Haitians can produce themselves.
This is not lack o will.
It's because o the world trade distortion and because this world trade distortion Haiti
cannot produce their own rice.
And just think, it's an agricultural country and yet they import 90 percent o the ood that
they consume.
How can you understand this? So we need to design a plan.
We need to understand what the diiculties are, the problems that need to be overcome.
Some are internal, some are external to the development problems o the country.
So, briely, I would like to revisit an idea that was put orward by President Moreno which I
think is essential or the short and middle term.
As the irst minister was saying, the Haitian problem needs to be seen in stages, phases.
The irst one is humanitarian aid, irst aids.
Let's call this irst aid phase to be able to cover the devastation that came ater the
catastrophe.
Then there is a second stage which would come within a year which is basically their
basic recovery stage in order to overcome the problems that came about because o the
catastrophe here.
We need to contemplate the building o housing.
They have tents but we need to make headway into building proper homes.
And then we need to think about the next ten years and this is what was talked about in
the New York Summit.
And Alicia is talking beyond ten years.
She's talking about 2030.
Now, looking at things rom this perspective, I would like to talk about the company roles.
How can we involve all the companies? How do we create the proper business
environment in Haiti? I want to revisit something that President
Moreno said and that is something that has to do with the experience o the U.S.
with Puerto Rico.
They created a nine-thirty six project on the basis o tax policies in the United States.
This was very simple.
U.S.
companies that would invest in Puerto Rico i they were patriating their beneits or proits to
the United States, they would be exempt on the payments they had to make or their
income tax.
So we're talking about oreign investment that would go to Puerto Rico.
Proits would be exempt rom paying taxes in the United States but they went one step
beyond.
They actually created a mechanism which is called twin plans.
So the group in Puerto Rico would set up another plant in the Dominican Republic and
then this plant would also be exempt rom paying taxes.
So i you look at the relationship between Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Haiti,
we're on the same zone.
There is a dierence in terms o their economic model, in terms o the added value
that is produced in the global value chain.
Puerto Rico is within the sphere o high technology.
We're talking about pharmaceutical industry.
We're talking about IT.
We're talking about biotechnology, robotics, et cetera.
Dominican Republic has been in a strong development phase in terms o textile, shoes,
plastics, medical equipment, et cetera.
Haiti has tried to go into a phase o light industry and the Dominican Republic is not
doing this.
It's not competitive enough because labor costs have increased and this is why this
investment is being done in Haiti.
So the idea would be the ollowing: Why not set up tax incentives.
or instance, Colombian companies could go and invest in Haiti.
Venezuelan companies could go to Haiti or a given time and they would be exempted
rom paying income tax in terms o their repatriated proits.
This would be a great incentive.
Now, beginning with the United States, well, they already have experienced with Puerto
Rico because they did this with Puerto Rico, but donor countries are just Canada and
rance, which or linguistic cultural and historical reasons have a very close link with
Haiti, why not ask that they do this incentive with Haiti so that companies rom these
countries could eventually become investors in Haiti? Because I think this is a type o
investment that is going to be needed short and medium term but it needs institutional
strengthening in addition to tax incentives.
This could bring about an improvement in the society and they can become better
integrated to the global chain value in terms o the services.
We would like to thank all our panel members.
This has been a wonderul orum.
It is an honor to have you all here.
I would like to ask ather Sep to give us a message --
-- representatives o governments o the region and at the same time you have two
very high top executives o the private sector, o course, President Moreno, what
would be your inal message rom Haiti? ather.
Oh, sorry, I did not realize that.
We live thankul to each one o you or your concern about rebuilding o Haiti.
As we said it, we need to do that in dialogue with the grassroots local organizations.
We cannot do the rebuilding o Haiti without the people who are concerned.
And also we need to look at this situation as an investment opportunities or the investors.
And I'm very glad that some o you have pointed that out.
Now, also, we need a lot o teachers especially or my university, the University o
ondwa.
We need your knowledge because you have been dealing with disaster situation more
than Haiti and you have more technological resources.
We need to develop a kind o partnership at this level.
But thank you very much or your concern and we hope you can come to visit with us in
Haiti as soon as possible. Thank you very much, sir, and the best o
luck or Haiti.
Thank you very much and good aternoon. So we have been sending tons and tons o
ood.
We have agreements with Caritas and we are helping with child nutrition.
This is an area where we're going to be aiding Haiti.
And the investment part, well, this has to do with -- this is an agricultural country and as
Luis Alberto was saying, in terms o taris, which is very important thing in Latin
America, one thing is to talk about North America and then South America.
So how can we make sure that not only where there will be a rule o law but a
production such that companies will really see in Haiti a clear investment opportunity.
I want to say that the part in Haiti is not going to come to an end in the short term.
It's -- Haiti has a huge deep bag crisis and it does require aid, assistance, and this is why
we have multilateral NGOs or NGOs or social development or development, or
investment.
All these comes rom the private sector, but the private sector needs to understand that
the proit associated to Haiti cannot be seen rom the same perspective as one could
apply to other economies.
Then once again we have to ask what comes irst, the chicken or the egg.
I think long term investments in Haiti will require a content o corporate responsibility
by the private sector.
I do not see any other way or the private sector to become involved in Haiti i it is not
done through long term investment.
It's an altruistic eort.
It might sound a little hard to understand but it is impossible to do things i we don't see
this.
Arica has been successul in many countries because o the aid that has been
given to Arica, but because projects has been set up by thinking about very long term
returns.
I think non-governmental NGOs and the private sector can expedite the timerames in
Haiti or many years.
And this has nothing to do with the earthquake.
But I want to say that governments have their own protocol.
They have their voters and their people and their realities, their own realities in Latin
America.
And because o this they have restricted budgets and they cannot always be as
solidary as they would like to be whether they do this through multilateral organizations
or other organizations.
But companies have a dierent perspective.
We can take risks because somewhat we have been signiicantly beneited thanks to
the companies that we manage.
So the topic o returns in Haiti we've looked at the returns rom an orthodox point o view,
well, this is not going to happen.
We need to think very long term.
We think -- we must think about social responsibility investments and, hopeully, the
private industry will summon executives and people that are transparent, that have an
impeccable reputation, and that they will be really committed in a allotting resources to
Haiti through whatever mechanism Haiti decides to use because, o course, they
have to make sure they understand what priorities they have.
The private enterprises have a capacity to produce results and these results could be
very beneicial to Haiti.
We would like to open up a possibility or the participants in this orum to ask questions to
the panel members. Alicia Barcena, the ECLA executive
secretary wanted to make a couple o comments and one is addressed to
President Leonel ernandez.
One o the exercises that we did with Dominican Republic was called Dominican
Republic 2030, and I do not know, Mister President, i you would think it would be
timely to do an exercise o this nature or Haiti.
How? Here there was an earthquake which
accumulated six times the cost o what had happened in 2004.
And we participated in an assessment with the IDB and the like to like cost.
In other words, i we were to rebuild everything just as they were beore the
earthquake, the international community said, well, well -- they weren't pursuing like
to like.
They wanted to do something dierent and they thought twelve thousand ive hundred
million dollars -- billion dollars was estimated.
This is a way to do things dierently.
Then the international immunity oered ive thousand -- ive billion or their short term.
But what is lacking here is a long term plan which would allow us to place all the pieces
o the puzzle in the right place and ask ourselves who's going to beneit rom this in
IT, the tourist sector, the industrial sector? What is the best productive strategy that will
allow the whole country to be reconstructed as o or starting with Port-au-Prince
because the earthquake really hit Port-au-Prince very, very hard? And i this
is going to trigger development or the country, are we going to think about a new
land use plan? And I'm not talking about dominance by the state.
We're not talking about this kind o dilemmas at the moment, but it is important to say that
something else is lacking in Haiti and that is we think -- you must think about the social
tissue o Haiti so that we can implement the bottom up approach.
At the ECLA we have seen that one thing that is lacking in Haiti is very simple.
That is a population census.
We need to do a survey o households to see where people are located, how many
people there are in each household.
And we have thought that this is a very urgent project and the best institution in Haiti
today is the Statistics Institute with which we work.
So we need to start to rebuild institutions in Haiti.
Some institutions are already there so we can start with them.
And one o the best institutions that are already there is the Statistics Institution so
my suggestion is to do a census.
We can do a survey o households.
We can do this with the IDB.
And we could apply a 2030 plan.
Thank you very much. Mister President, would you like to make a
comment on this proposal? Yes, o course.
But, irst o all, I would like to congratulate Alicia or making this recommendation, and I
have to say that with our Minister o Economics who is sitting next to you, we had
already talked about this topic.
In our experience at the Dominican Republic and because o the inancial global crisis, we
tackled this process in two ways.
irst o all, we need to think about democratic governance and vis-�-vis the
threat or a small economy by a inancial crisis.
So we decided to summon an international summit and we called up the summit o
national unity vis-�-vis the global economic crisis.
And in that summit we summoned the lie orces o society and we agreed about the
main topics that we needed to tackle in order to abate or mitigate the impact o such
catastrophe.
So we started to think long term.
And we have designed jointly with ECLA and with the proposal or Dominican Republic, the
2030 proposal, we started to think about structural, economic, social, political,
scientiic, technological, cultural projects or Dominican Republic in the next 30 years.
And I think the perspective that we have in ront o us is to look into the uture, to have
oresight, and this oresight will help us to ind what kind o country we want to create.
I think Haiti needs this oresight, this vision towards the uture so that they can
determine which are the priority areas that need to be developed and what are the
diiculties that may arise in trying to achieve this project.
And here I want to say something and perhaps this is so that you can understand
what I'm saying better.
Perhaps what am I saying, we are going to say that Haiti is a country that needs
agricultural development.
It needs to develop its agricultural sector.
This is a very good statement but why isn't this happening? Well, it's not happening
because the devil is in the details and we're not paying enough attention to this.
So let's think that we're going to plant rice, or instance.
In the Dominican Republic the rice that we consume is planted by Haitians, but Haitians
import all o the rice they consume.
Why? Because there is a distortion world trade problem.
They import.
Haiti imports subsidized rice and this subsidized rice is cheaper than the rice that
the Haitians can produce themselves.
This is not lack o will.
It's because o the world trade distortion and because this world trade distortion Haiti
cannot produce their own rice.
And just think, it's an agricultural country and yet they import 90 percent o the ood that
they consume.
How can you understand this? So we need to design a plan.
We need to understand what the diiculties are, the problems that need to be overcome.
Some are internal, some are external to the development problems o the country.
So, briely, I would like to revisit an idea that was put orward by President Moreno which I
think is essential or the short and middle term.
As the irst minister was saying, the Haitian problem needs to be seen in stages, phases.
The irst one is humanitarian aid, irst aids.
Let's call this irst aid phase to be able to cover the devastation that came ater the
catastrophe.
Then there is a second stage which would come within a year which is basically their
basic recovery stage in order to overcome the problems that came about because o the
catastrophe here.
We need to contemplate the building o housing.
They have tents but we need to make headway into building proper homes.
And then we need to think about the next ten years and this is what was talked about in
the New York Summit.
And Alicia is talking beyond ten years.
She's talking about 2030.
Now, looking at things rom this perspective, I would like to talk about the company roles.
How can we involve all the companies? How do we create the proper business
environment in Haiti?
I want to revisit something that President Moreno said and that is something that has
to do with the experience o the U.S.
with Puerto Rico.
They created a nine-thirty six project on the basis o tax policies in the United States.
This was very simple.
U.S.
companies that would invest in Puerto Rico i they were patriating their beneits or proits to
the United States, they would be exempt on the payments they had to make or their
income tax.
So we're talking about oreign investment that would go to Puerto Rico.
Proits would be exempt rom paying taxes in the United States but they went one step
beyond.
They actually created a mechanism which is called twin plans.
So the group in Puerto Rico would set up another plant in the Dominican Republic and
then this plant would also be exempt rom paying taxes.
So i you look at the relationship between Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Haiti,
we're on the same zone.
There is a dierence in terms o their economic model, in terms o the added value
that is produced in the global value chain.
Puerto Rico is within the sphere o high technology.
We're talking about pharmaceutical industry.
We're talking about IT.
We're talking about biotechnology, robotics, et cetera.
Dominican Republic has been in a strong development phase in terms o textile, shoes,
plastics, medical equipment, et cetera.
Haiti has tried to go into a phase o light industry and the Dominican Republic is not
doing this.
It's not competitive enough because labor costs have increased and this is why this
investment is being done in Haiti.
So the idea would be the ollowing: Why not set up tax incentives.
or instance, Colombian companies could go and invest in Haiti.
Venezuelan companies could go to Haiti or a given time and they would be exempted
rom paying income tax in terms o their repatriated proits.
This would be a great incentive.
Now, beginning with the United States, well, they already have experienced with Puerto
Rico because they did this with Puerto Rico, but donor countries are just Canada and
rance, which or linguistic cultural and historical reasons have a very close link with
Haiti, why not ask that they do this incentive with Haiti so that companies rom these
countries could eventually become investors in Haiti? Because I think this is a type o
investment that is going to be needed short and medium term but it needs institutional
strengthening in addition to tax incentives.
This could bring about an improvement in the society and they can become better
integrated to the global chain value in terms o the services.
We would like to thank all our panel members.
This has been a wonderul orum.
It is an honor to have you all here.
I would like to ask ather Sep to give us a message --
-- representatives o governments o the region and at the same time you have two
very high top executives o the private sector, o course, President Moreno, what
would be your inal message rom Haiti? ather.
Oh, sorry, I did not realize that.
We live thankul to each one o you or your concern about rebuilding o Haiti.
As we said it, we need to do that in dialogue with the grassroots local organizations.
We cannot do the rebuilding o Haiti without the people who are concerned.
And also we need to look at this situation as investment opportunities or the investors.
And I'm very glad that some o you have pointed that out.
Now, also, we need a lot o teachers especially or my university, the University o
ondwa.
We need your knowledge because you have been dealing with disaster situation more
than Haiti and you have more technological resources.
We need to develop a kind o partnership at this level.
But thank you very much or your concern and we hope you can come to visit with us in
Haiti as soon as possible.
Thank you very much, sir, and the best o luck or Haiti.
Thank you very much and good aternoon.