Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Well good morning everyone and welcome to this important session.
Two years after the terrible earthquake in Haiti,
Haiti's in the process of turning the corner,
but there's a great danger the world will be turning the page,
because with the crisis in the Eurozone, with the other challenges,
it's so easy for people to forget, both the challenges,
but also the great opportunities in Haiti.
And to ensure that that does not occur, we are having this session here today.
And President Martelly, we are so pleased that you can be with us here today.
Mr. President, a few days after the terrible earthquake,
we were holding our January Davos, in 2010,
and in a conversation between Klaus Schwab and President Clinton and also with Luis Moreno,
decision was made to actually put Haiti upfront in the conversation then.
And so we had a number of public and private sessions in 2010,
where we said we need to do what we can now,
but we should, even more importantly, commit ourselves to doing more going forward,
because we realized it was going to be a long-term issue.
Over the last two years we've tried to keep that commitment.
So last year, we had sessions on building back better,
both in the public and private sessions here.
We also produced a number of different analyses
looking at the opportunities for private sector driven,
but partnership implemented growth in Haiti.
And, now, today, we're extraordinarily pleased to have you here with us,
because at a time when the world might be turning its back on Haiti,
you're here to give a voice and a face to the new Haiti, the new possibilities.
So Mr. President, on behalf of everyone here, the World Economic Forum, welcome to Davos.
Thank you Robert and thank you for the support that you have brought to Haiti
since the earthquake, particularly, and thank you everyone for your interest for Haiti.
I came here, mainly, to tell you that the old Haiti that you've been hearing about,
the images that you've been seeing, this Haiti is all over now.
I had nothing to do with politics before I got elected, I was a musician,
but because I was always involved in trying to change the lives of my brothers and sisters,
the Haitian people, I became someone that they trusted.
They felt like my heart was always in Haiti, that my love for Haiti was sincere,
my commitment was sincere, so it became easy for me to win these elections.
And since then, I'm happy to say that things have started moving.
When I came to power,
I felt like Haiti still looked like the earthquake had happened the day before.
But since then, we've been able to bring 903,000 kids to school freely.
We've been able to provide free transportation to them.
We have started building 4,000 homes in an area outside of Haiti.
I have appointed for the first time since seven years, the Supreme Court Judge.
I have launched a program called Aba grangou, to fight hunger,
where mothers, about a million, will be getting money through fund transfers,
and in order for them to be eligible, they must send their kids to school,
and the kids must be vaccinated.
We, have with the help of the IDB in Haiti,
an Economic Forum where about 1,000 investors came to Haiti
and from that we were able to get some very important deals.
One of them, the Marriott deal, a deal worth about 150 million.
Again, it's small compared to what Haiti needs today, but it's very important.
It's a strong signal compared to what was never done before I came in,
so I'm here to reassure the world, tell them that this is a new Haiti.
I'm in power to take decisions, to change the lives of the Haitians.
We are fortunate to have some partners who believe in us.
I can mention the IDB. I can mention Nestle who's doing some work down in Haiti.
I can mention Marriott.
Denis was doing some great work in Haiti and all of these companies who have dared today,
happy that they did.
I'm ready to stand by anyone who comes to Haiti to invest, to protect their investment,
allow them to enjoy the fiscal advantages, the laws and the treaties that Haiti has,
for instance, the HOPE law, the HELP law,
who allows you to export freely from Haiti to the United States of America personally.
We are very encouraged with what's happening,
we are actually building what's going to be the biggest industrial park in Haiti,
in the North of Haiti, where we hope to employ directly and indirectly about 80,000 people.
Sae-A, a Korean company is investing $60 million, so this is great news.
I'm here to tell you that you're welcome to come to Haiti, visit,
and find out that this new leadership is about no more aid, but trade,
no more hand-outs, but hands up.
We are working toward diminishing getting aid from countries.
We want to bring investors and investment to Haiti,
so we can create jobs and therefore have sustainable development.
This is actually my message, and with this I will return the...
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
And one of the elements that was very important, he underlined,
was the democratic process that have taken place over the last year
resulted in your being elected, not because you are the choice of the establishment,
but because you are the choice of the people of Haiti
and with all the credibility and energy that that provides.
At the same time, it's clear that the last two years have been challenging,
and for those who were involved in every level including Haitians themselves,
there was a sense it didn't go as fast as people wanted.
What's your sense of that, why did it take so long,
and what do you think the situations like to be going forward?
Well, for not being a politician,
I believe that the politicians were not too happy with my victory.
It was a huge victory, about 68% of the population.
They wanted that change that I had promised.
And when I came to power, it was hard for me to even get my prime minister ratified.
I had to wait about seven months, but while I was waiting, I didn't stop working.
Indeed I did stop marking points.
For instance, I came in in May and the next school year which started in October,
I had already 903,000 kids in school.
You know, wherever there's democracy, you have to deal with it,
and we intend to follow the process.
Except that people are becoming more and more confident as they are identifying success,
and great stories of success, so, everyday, things are getting better.
The confidence remains high, as far as the population is concerned
as they have identified that we are moving in the right direction.
So things are getting better.
Mr. President, you mentioned the point about things getting better.
One of the things that people may not realize is, Haiti's growth last year was 8.6%.
In fact, the IMF January projections that came out which actually downgraded the world,
upgraded Haiti's growth prospects to almost 9% for this year,
so there is a sense of possibility.
But let me go forward from the situation now to the situation by the end of your term.
What would you like to be the situation in Haiti by the end of this term?
Well, for instance, this park that's being built in the North,
we expect to duplicate it, have many of them, a little bit everywhere in Haiti,
so we can actually create jobs.
Marriott that's coming is great news. We also have the Best Western coming down.
We are building roads here and there, with the help of the IDB.
We have integrated the National Number One, about a few months ago.
We are actually working on the South side of the country.
As far as the energy sector, we are today at 25% of what's needed in Haiti,
and in Haiti we complain about not having electricity,
but I see this as an opportunity for big companies,
who are interested in that sector to come down to Haiti
and I do expect that by the end of my term that every kid will be in school freely.
That we'll be able to have many roads built, many hotels, many jobs created
and if I succeed at doing this, we will have moved forward.
And, certainly, the rule of law, working at making sure that the rule of law prevails,
and I have appointed a commission for judiciary form
as corruption is something that we must eradicate, we must.
That's an ambitious agenda and you mentioned partnerships to do that
and you referred to the Inter-American Development Bank
and Luis Moreno, you've been involved in Haiti passionately
and personally in your role as the head of the Inter-American Development Bank
for many years, and particularly since the earthquake,
what's your prognosis of the situation now?
Well look, first of all,
I think you all can judge from the kind of energy that President Martelly has,
what this means on the ground.
When one thinks of Haiti and the kinds of stresses it's been through,
it's something almost impossible to imagine,
because what that earthquake meant to Haiti
and some of the natural disasters that preceded it, were really, really huge.
And no matter what country in the world, if it went through that,
you would have a very long period of recovery.
What we see today is truly a new day.
A new day where some of the commitments that the national community made
are starting to come together, but more importantly,
the fact that you have a president elected democratically,
that he's been able to appoint an extremely strong team, a very good Prime Minister.
I mean these were things that before did not happen in Haiti.
But more importantly with a very clear focus around the number of areas.
One is education, which I give a lot of credit to the President for focusing on that,
because I believe that this is really the game changer.
Here's a country with almost 1.3 million kids that do not go to school
in a population of nine million.
I mean, what country can endure that over time
and we're talking that the average age in Haiti is probably 24, so, you know,
this is a hugely important issue and the President really took that on
and I think, everybody in the international committee is going to follow him
in a process where no longer does a family have to pay a $100 per kid per year,
but it will be a system that is tuition free,
that you can basically work on lifting the quality of education,
that's the kind of environment that you can really put in place a new education system
that you perhaps could not in any other place
because of the complexity of unions and the rest of it.
The other part is of course the infrastructure.
I mean, Haiti for many, many years, more than reconstructing, it's about constructing.
I mean, there were so many roads that were never built,
and we, and others, European Union, Canada, and many other donors, US,
have participated in helping some of the key roads that Haiti needs,
build the power structure that needs power, that needs water and sanitation,
all of which we have been working on and of course the agricultural sector,
I mean, Haiti's a country that largely imports most of its food.
If we know anything today,
it's that we're in an environment that for the next 10 or 15 years
the world's going to see rising commodity prices,
because of larger demand in other parts of the world,
and I think that's something that needs to be taken the best opportunity of
and begin to help develop especially the central plateau,
it has a huge potential.
The productivity levels, they are very low, but that is something we are working on
and as we know, you know,
getting the kind of agricultural production
requires the whole system of irrigation to be in place, logistics, et cetera,
but some of that we're working out.
I'm sure that Bruce will tell you some of the examples that are being developed there.
And finally the development of the private sector,
and here I think what President Martelly,
and his focus on giving an opportunity to the private sector,
and embracing the private sector coming to Haiti is very important.
I want to say that there is no country in the world
that has a better trade agreement with the United States than Haiti.
And, for that matter, what minister here did recently
begin to enlarge that trade agreement to other countries in the world,
so what you have is a platform that is literally an hour 15 minutes
from the United States, centrally located with extremely good label for us,
because the one thing that few people talk about,
which I think is the biggest resource Haiti has, is its people.
Talk to anybody and I'm sure our friends from Marriott will tell you,
they will tell you the kind of quality workers the Haitians are in their hotels
throughout the United States or Denis can tell you the same and this, I believe,
is the combination of a real opportunity that the first mover advantage
companies like Denis, and what he's done with Digicel, what Marriott is doing,
they know that in the long run, the fact that they move now is going to make a difference.
And, talking about Digicel,
Denis O'Brien, you're the largest private sector investor in Haiti,
but you're also probably the most engaged.
I mean, you've seen it through the challenges that Luis Moreno was talking about
with the hurricanes and then the earthquake, but you've actually kept that and, in fact,
the results are quite different than people would expect if they just read the headlines.
What's your prognosis right now in the situation?
Well, you know, it was shocking the earthquake,
but it was a reflection point for Haiti, because, you know,
people had views of what Haiti was like as a place to invest and they didn't invest
and now we see democracy working really well
and we have the disappearance of the old Haiti.
And under this new president, President Martelly,
we're seeing a kind of a night-and-day experience
because as a foreign direct investor, you know,
you're conscious of what the political situation is
and now we have a stable situation.
The state, more and more, is taking back over the governance of the country away from NGOs
and, you know, there is a lot of capacity building.
And in that kind of environment, it gives you great confidence.
So, you know, up until a year ago we'd invest about $450 million
and in the last six months because of this new stability,
we're investing another $150 million in laying fiber 4G networks.
And I would say to all foreign direct investors, you know,
Haiti is one of those places where it's about to explode over the next number of years.
We're saying last year it grew by 9%,
we think this current year it's going to be another maybe 10%,
so it's a high growth economy, it's a very cash-based economy,
it's a consumer economy as well, and I think, you know, for international brands
we've seen in the last month or so,
Heineken come in and make a huge investment in the country
and I think more and more major players are going to be looking at Haiti
and coming to invest.
And I think the opportunities in infrastructure, building airports,
in ports, road building, reconstruction, tourism
I mean, the opportunity for tourism is absolutely vast.
If you fly over the Northern coast of Haiti,
you'd nearly fall out of your seat how beautiful it is,
so I think there's a lot of opportunity, but I think as a place to do business,
Haiti is really, really, a very, very solid place to be.
We operate in 30 countries, but we are so enthusiastic about Haiti,
we are out telling foreign direct investors,
come, because, you know, the opportunities are immense.
The other fundamental thing is our staff. The engagement from staff,
the quality of the management as well of our Haitian managers is second to none,
so you have a very intelligent workforce, hardworking workforce
and they just all the time want to improve not just their own situation,
but their family situation
and the family unit is so powerful in Haiti that it's just incredible.
So I'm very positive, my board is very positive
and I think, you know, what we've seen in the last four or five months,
the quicker decision making is, I think, a great credit,
and, I think, the support of the World Economic Forum, IDB, President Clinton
has been an incredible advocate and so has Klaus.
So, you know, Haiti really has a lot of support,
so I think the reception the president is getting here this week,
is really, really powerful in a movement of change.
And Denis, it's interesting with your experience,
because there is no doubt there is a challenge,
the government institutions, they're just being built and rebuilt,
there's no one how understands how to work effectively in Haiti.
What's your advice to companies or organizations
who are looking to engage with Haiti? I mean, how does one do that effectively?
Very, very easily.
I mean, obviously, the president is here, he's with his staff as well,
so, you know, if there are people out there to the World Economic Forum of course,
please make contact.
I would be delighted obviously to and I'm sure Luis would be as well
just to talk to foreign direct investors and give them our experience.
Yeah, there are little wrinkles on the way, you know, things you have to overcome,
but that's the same if you were to invest in any country in Europe.
So, there, for people out there, this is being televised,
just make contact with the World Economic Forum.
Arne Sorenson, you were talking about investors,
Marriott has just made a serious investment in Haiti,
maybe you could share with us your thinking behind that,
but also what you hope to accomplish with that?
Well, first let me say,
it's an honor to be on the stage with a group of leaders that is doing so much for Haiti.
I'm humbled to be in your presence
and really inspired by what you have done on the ground there
and President Martelly, welcome to the new leadership role that you're taking
and perhaps what Denis and Digicel has done
and it's extraordinary the progress that has been made.
What we've done is very small by comparison in many respects,
but when the earthquake hit, we heard from our Haitian associates,
and we have a few thousand Haitian associates in the United States,
mostly in Florida and New York,
that they wanted us to be involved with them, somehow, in Haiti
and we initially made a donation, but they wanted something more and ultimately,
they came up with the idea of why don't we find a way to get a hotel in Port-au-Prince.
And so we reached out to President Clinton and to Denis through Digicel
and started our conversations about that market
and came to love the potential that is there.
There is an obvious and immediate need for hotel rooms
to welcome the people who are traveling to Haiti today
and so there's a real business need for this hotel to be built and constructed.
And we're really inspired by the fact
that there will be 175 Haitians working in that hotel when it opens
and we'll work with them to train them and do the things that are needed
in order to make sure that we're taking care of our guests,
and doing the things that need to accomplish.
The work that we did, again, with these partnerships, which is so important,
really told us that it was time to put a sign up that Haiti is open for business,
Welcome to Haiti.
And we hope that by putting the Marriott brand boldly on the building in Port-au-Prince,
that we communicate to folks, not only can you get a good night sleep when you come
and we'll take care of you in that very concrete way, but you should come to Haiti.
It's safe to come to Haiti, there are things happening in Haiti,
there's business being done here and there's also an enormous tourism potential.
We start with one hotel, but hopefully it doesn't end there
because it has been mentioned that when you fly over this country
and you see the potential and as compelling as President Martelly's smile is,
we see it on thousands of Haitians associates in our hotel all the time.
This is a people that is extraordinary at welcoming and giving pleasure in life,
and we hope to be part of that in the great place of Haiti.
You know, and one of the very interesting things of the last couple of years
has actually been a very creative ways in which different organizations internationally
have been engaged.
I mean, President Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative
have played a really important role in terms of gathering together different stakeholders.
Denis, you played a leadership role with President Clinton on that element,
but we've also seen a number of corporations step up.
Coca Cola and Muhtar Kant, after a conversation,
Luis, I think with you here in Davos two years ago, launched forward with a very bold concept.
Nestle's been involved recently in announcing engaging in coffee growing in Colombia.
In Haiti with the coffee growers association of Colombia, a very interesting model.
In the earthquake and immediately afterwards, Google, McKinsey & Co., PWC, Accentra,
a number of other organizations here have been very engaged.
Mercy Corps is now working with one of Europe's largest insurance companies
to set up a for-profit social entrepreneurship micro-insurance scheme in Haiti.
So the interesting element has been not just who's been involved,
but how they've been involved, and these new partnerships working between governments,
civil society and the private sector, so it's not one or the other,
but it's the two or three working together.
And in fact, I think one of the best examples of that is Bruce,
the work you've been doing with Coke, with Muhtar Kant,
with techno serves leadership and capabilities
taking the inspiration that came out of the conversation in Davos
and actually making it a reality on the ground
so maybe you could share with us some of your perspectives in terms of that journey.
Sure, and thanks Bob and as you said
this was an idea that came out of a conversation that Luis had with Muhtar Kant
here two years ago in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake,
but thinking even then beyond reconstruction to rebuilding for the longer term.
Coke has been on the ground in Haiti, was the largest employer for many, many years.
But as they started to think about challenge by this conversation
what could they be doing more broadly.
Building on some work we've done with them in East Africa,
they thought we actually at this point United States selling a lot of fruit juices,
sourcing fruit among them mango from Mexico and other parts of Latin America,
when in fact, Haiti grows some of the best mangos in the world.
And in fact the Francis mangoes are unique to Haiti
and one of the best flavor profiles there are.
And so, with that in mind, Coke very aggressively moved to partner with us,
with IDB, with USAID and other partners and in seven weeks launched the Haiti HOPE initiative
to actually build their supply chain backwards into Haiti
and to work at that point about 25,000 mango farmers.
So in March of 2010, the Odwalla brand, which is a Coke brand, launched Haiti HOPE.
Mango tango is their second largest selling fruit juice.
A dime from the sale of every one of these goes back into our investment in Haiti
and that money is being used to organize farmers to engage commercially,
and to give them an opportunity, increase their own income by a virtue of their work
and their link into a viable commercial market.
So our efforts are to organize farmers around agronomy,
but more importantly, into co-ops and farmer owned business groups,
that can commercially interact with markets to help them get access to credit,
which has not been available in any large scale way for farmers,
particularly small holder farmers working there with (inaudible)
with backing from the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund
to work with intermediaries in that value chain, because that's what Coke can't do.
It's can they get in and work with the providers of logistics and transportation
and storage service.
To work with the exporters on actually getting the quality product in the fresh market
into the United States and then to begin thinking, even now,
about the investment possibilities around processing for purees on the ground in Haiti.
And I think it's that kind of enlightened approach on the part of Coca Cola,
thinking about how do we think about creating shared value,
how do I think about doing what I do as Coca Cola in a business sense,
but also widening that to think about actually
how can I actually accomplish a broader social purpose.
In this case it's doing what President Martelly referred to.
It's no longer about hand-outs, how do we give people a real hand up,
and there are ample opportunities to do that in agriculture,
but in small business development too.
But in agriculture, you refer to cocoa... coffee, cocoa, essential oils, limes,
(inaudible) oils, rice as an import substitution play.
There are real commercial possibilities for indigenous Haitian entrepreneurs,
if given the right sets of relationships, training and access to capital.
Mr. Martelly, when you listen to this,
about the actual realized growth rate of 8% last year, 9% according to the IMF,
maybe as high as 10% according to Denis for next year, I mean that's pretty exciting,
but at the same time it's also pretty challenging.
What do you see as the biggest challenges that we need to collectively overcome
in the next year or two to kind of realize some of these opportunities?
Well, Robert, going in that direction, I feel like we will overcome.
I feel like everyone in this panel is a partner.
They are engaged in helping me change Haiti. We have started, things are happening.
So I believe that we will have some challenges, but they will be overcome.
We will move forward on every aspect.
Today clean water remains a problem,
but we have enterprises that are down in Haiti,
working at making clean water available everywhere.
I just mentioned the energy problem which is a real problem.
But again, it's big opportunities for some companies and they are coming down.
We haven't mentioned today Heineken, who just brought a brewer in Haiti.
And with this, they are also thinking of
producing rice and other crops that can be used to actually make the beer.
So, the real challenge was to create jobs in Haiti.
And with the kind of partners that we have on this panel,
and who are also serving as ambassadors, they didn't just invest in Haiti.
They come here to the World Economic Forum, and they promote Haiti,
they talk about the investment and the success that they are having down there.
I think, we're not afraid of the future.
Let's open it up and get some questions and comments.
Because what we want is taped conversation from this group here, but also more broadly.
Let me turn to Scott Gilmore, you've been involved with peace dividend trust,
and social entrepreneurship models around the world.
Including challenging places like Afghanistan and elsewhere.
What's your take on the Haiti situation, and what's your...
Also, any advice you would provide to the president?
Well, President Martelly, it's a pleasure to see you here today.
I'm actually delighted to see such a strong private sector presence here on this panel.
We recently did a survey of the construction industry in Haiti.
And found that before the earthquake,
only 25% of the large scale construction that was taking place in Haiti,
was being done by Haitian companies.
That's up to 45% today.
But it's still significantly lower than what it could be.
Haitian construction companies are capable of doing great things,
and it's always a little bit heartbreaking
when I see foreign construction companies building hotels and that.
And frankly it's, I shouldn't use the hotels as an example,
because the international private sector is so much better at this,
than the United Nations is, or the aid agencies.
And so, actually, the question I have for the panel is,
why is it Mr. Sorenson, that you can use local contractors
to meet your profit objectives and get things done.
And yet, Mr. Martelly, we see again and again and again,
the United Nations has to fly people in to do the same thing.
Thank you.
Please go ahead.
This is something that we...
talking to our partners about partnering with Haitian companies, subcontracting them.
And it's happening, it's actually happening.
You have to understand that today Haiti is a land of opportunities and business.
Businesses come to Haiti looking for contracts.
And through the IHRC, who was the commission in charge of the reconstruction of Haiti.
They have gotten contracts.
So, the main thing is to make sure that Haitian companies get some part of the jobs.
But we will not keep anyone out, as we want to keep on attracting businesses in Haiti.
Could I just join in here.
I mean, there are some very good Haitian contracting companies,
we use about 12 of them.
And, you know, I think there's an awful lot of capacity there, and capabilities.
So, I think that is changing.
And I think we should also welcome in international companies as well,
because they also do a technical transfer.
So I think it's a combination of both.
But I don't think anybody can say, well we're not going to use international firms,
or we're only going to use Haitian firms.
I think it's a competitive market,
and we're seeing KIER for example, K-I-E-R, which is a UK company, come in.
They're a highly capable organization,
but there are also highly capable Haitian contractors.
So, and the quality is, and your fish in sea is good, and standards are being raised.
So, I think, you know, there isn't a necessity to bring in a pile of international people.
There are plenty there already.
Are you saying that the way we work,
and I think it's very important, from a development perspective,
to help in all the institutional building of the Haitian government.
That's what we have been very committed.
But it's also important to think a bit along the line that Dennis was saying.
In having different kinds of models,
for instance, in the water system of Port-au-Prince.
We brought in a Spanish company
that's very successful in administering these water systems throughout the world.
But they're doing it with Haitian stuff.
And I think it's not that one is better than the other, but it's just solution driven.
And in the capacity building of the country as a whole.
I think this is really the one area that we all have to invest overtime,
if you are in the development field, as we are, and that's what we have been doing.
And frankly speaking, if you start to look at only what President Martelly would tell you,
but around his government, you are starting to see death of talent that began to be there.
There's things for instance, that we have been working on.
This doing business indicators.
President Martelly is working on something that we did for instance,
for allowing quick decisions on construction licenses,
or for starting a business, which I guarantee you will move up a dial
in whatever the World Bank, where anybody's looking,
at doing business indicators Haiti will show,
that Haiti will begin to move up in this area as well.
Also, the last earthquake that we had, we'll have to go back to about 150 years.
So, we never had that culture of building with anti-seismic.
So we need these companies to come down now and show us how to do it.
As Dennis was saying, transfer of technologies.
So it's very important for them to be on the ground also, in that aspect.
Very interesting.
We can open up other questions, other comments from different perspectives?
Please, sir. Could you introduce yourself?
George Foster, from Stanford University.
Sometimes, when you have situations like you have in Haiti now,
it sort of kicks past the entrepreneurial community.
I was just wondering if you've seen some of that going on in Haiti?
We, in the last couple of years, have run the entrepreneur of the year awards in Haiti.
And we've this on a regional basis.
We've done it for people who have
small, tiny, microbusinesses, medium-sized businesses, and large-scale businesses.
And, you know, the response has been...
We run a television program over many many weeks, and then there's a grand finale.
And just before Christmas,
President Martelly gave the awards to all these different category winners.
And then to the overall winner.
And is has been, you know, the highest rating TV program in Haiti.
So there are nine million entrepreneurs there.
I used to think I was entrepreneurial, until I went to Haiti.
Everybody is entrepreneurial in Haiti, because they're used to making a living.
You know, they come from a farming background, so many people are buying and selling things.
You know, there are people who are getting together co-ops, and the mango business.
But also, in these sewing pods as well, coffee co-opses.
So many groups coming together as entrepanuars and collaborating that it's really,
at the grass roots level it's incredibly vibrant.
And if you travel around the country, with very little capital,
people have done extraordinary things.
And I think it's a mixture between getting investment,
obviously the larger scale investments.
But also through funds that IDB
have been made available to this kind of micro investment.
Funds is the way to build up the economy.
So, it's not like other countries who are entrepreneurs.
Doesn't mean you have to nearly drag it out of people,
everybody is an entrepreneur nearly.
Maybe I can just build on that, because it was interesting.
One of the other elements that came out of the conversation in Davos two years ago was,
a partnership between SAP and (inaudible), out of Bangladesh,
to set up a social entrepreneurship fund called YY Haiti.
Because there was a sense that there is this element of entrepreneurship.
But how does one channel and inform that entrepreneurial spirit,
to be able to compete effectively with 21st century business models?
And so that's one element.
Can we actually take the experience and expertise from the private sectors
of other parts of the world to help actually empower the Haitian entrepreneurial spirit.
And then, the Canadian government, under CIDA, has actually been involved,
I believe Mr. President, in a number of technical schools,
has actually helped create the education for employment.
so as these businesses are developed,
they actually have the technical skills behind them.
Perhaps, Mr. President, you could comment a little bit on this.
How does one equip the Haitian people with the education
that's necessary for the jobs of today and the future.
Before I answer that, I want to ask also that,
Spain gave us a fund of 15 million dollars
that has been given to the IDB so we can, through our institutions,
lend money to the young entrepreneurs.
And I'm positive that pretty soon we're going to start feeling
the impact of these young entrepreneurs.
As Dennis stated, probably from living such a difficult life,
every Haitian has become an entrepreneur.
They had to create means to survive.
And today, because they are being offered opportunities,
and I must add to that, that Haitians, when offered opportunities, they do succeed.
I believe that there's going to be some movement.
Please.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Houser with Bill Change, a social enterprise that is working in Haiti
to train and empower people to rebuild and retrofit houses there.
We hire Haitian engineers and then we partner with the private sector,
in order to supplement the engineering and management capacity
that we need in order to deliver our programs.
But I'd like to ask a question about why there isn't more private sector involvement
in some of the large scale infrastructure projects that are going on?
Recently the World Bank let out an RFP for a large infrastructure project,
and I understand that this short list of organizations are all NGOs.
And I'm wondering if what are the obstacles there?
If it's a procurement issue from the bank's standpoint?
Or if it's a registration in Haiti's standpoint?
Or, what's getting in the way?
Or if those NGOs actually have the private sector as their subs?
That's great.
Well look. I can tell you from our own experience.
Actually, there is a couple of large engineering companies,
that have done what I think is fundamental to be able to get contracts in the future.
Which is to bet on Haiti.
And to bet on Haiti means, not just to get one contract,
fly-by-night, bring all your people, and goodbye.
We look for companies that are going to settle themselves, bring the equipment,
leave it in Haiti, hire Haitian engineers, hire Haitian people.
And they, frankly, have done a tremendous job.
There is a Dominican company, there is a Brazilian company.
One of the fascinating things in Haiti is, for a country,
that was so fundamentally helping liberate, and support, for instance, Simon Bolivar,
when he was broke, in his campaign to liberate the Andean countries, he went to Haiti.
And he went to Haiti and got funding,
he came and left to do one of his most important campaigns.
Well, many countries in Latin America never looked at Haiti.
Today that's very different.
And a lot of companies and investors from Latin America
are looking at this investor opportunity.
Because what we see today increasingly, of course,
is the nurturing of the south kind of cooperation and development.
I must add to that, that the bureaucracy in Haiti had been heavy in the past,
and that had discouraged entrepreneurs.
And we have many laws that are in front of the parliament right now, waiting to be voted.
For instance, it's only the other day that we voted laws on building condominiums in 2012,
like co-proprietֳ©, being able to buy an apartment, and living together.
So, we were slow at doing these things,
and now with this new leadership, it's very encouraging,
and people are looking more and more so that we'll help the private sector move.
Mr. President, the hour's gone very quickly.
Any last words?
Well, again, I would like to thank everyone who's showing interest in Haiti.
We have been hit by nature many times, but we are fighters.
We will come back, and especially with the kind of support that I feel,
from the World Economic Forum, from the partners that are here on the panel,
and from the people who are actually showing interest in Haiti.
I believe that better days are ahead of us.
So thank you, and I welcome you to come and visit Haiti, see for yourself.
And I want you to see in this new leadership a partner.
As I've stated before, we will stand by you, protect your investment,
and make sure that you can prosper and make money.
When you do, you pay your taxes, you create jobs, and Haiti prospers.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Let me just close with thanking all the panelists.
Luis, you made a very important point.
That Haiti, in fact, was the second republic in Americas in 1804,
through their own determination, they won their freedom.
So with a proud past, and now with a potential of a hopeful future.
And just like in 1804, the key secret today is going to be leadership.
So thank you very much Mr. President, for being part of this.