ARTICLE - LAMOTHE - SATISFACTION 6TH SUMMIT

SATISFACTION OF LAURENT LAMOTHE - SIXTH SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
(Haiti Libre) -

Monday, April 16, during a press briefing at the Foreign Ministry, Laurent Lamothe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he was satisfied with the participation of Haiti at the sixth Summit of the Americas, indicating that they had fruitful meetings that will have a positive impact for the Haitian population.

"[...] We met with various delegations, we had a meeting with Caricom where we discussed the future representation of Caricom in Haiti, and the measures that we should put in place so that Caricom may have a good representation here, in all matters of interest; such as visas with Caricom countries and other issues. I must tell you that many leaders support the cause of Haiti, and we were very glad to see that [...] We had a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. We discussed projects that Canada has for Haiti, and we took the opportunity to thank them for the Champs de Mars, because we see that things are moving fast at this level; almost half of the Champs de Mars is already emptied, with the help of Canada [...]"

Laurent Lamothe announced the arrival in Haiti on April 25, of a Venezuelan technical mission working in agriculture. Stressing also the willingness of Brazil to help local authorities to implement the process of electronic voting in future electoral contests, he confirmed the conclusion of a cooperation agreement with Brazil, which undertakes, through the 4C project, to facilitate irrigation of farmland in the Artibonite, and the development of energy production for this department.

This Sixth Summit of the Americas, was also an opportunity for Chancellor Lamothe, to advocate in order to obtain a faster disbursement of aid pledged to Haiti

"[...] We asked them that they activate, they accelerate the promises they have made to help Haiti. As we know, more than $9 billion has been promised, and only 43% of this amount has been disbursed; so, we asked them to work with us, so that the remaining amount can be disbursed, to support the process of reconstruction in the country, because we have roads, hospitals, clinics, schools to build, we must literate the population, we have programs for free schools... We have all kinds of financial pressures... We asked them to understand the urgency of the situation and continue to accelerate the disbursement process [...]"

However, Laurent Lamothe noted that the current lack of a functioning government in Haiti was the cause of a slowdown of disbursements because "the mechanisms that these countries use to make their disbursements, is with functional governments, not with resigned governments... Given that the current government in Haiti is a resigning government, they are in a position where they slow the disbursements... it does not help with the strategy [...] they say yes, but who is the interlocutor? The interlocutor is a resigning government so this puts us in a situation where our ability to negotiate is reduced. [...]

There is another reason also Haiti is still in a position as a claimant [...] They told us that it is necessary that we fly with our own wings. We told them that we want to fly with our own wings, and we have submitted them a list of our needs in order to do so [...] There are many things that come against us, but that does not mean that we can not get out of the current situation. I think that with conviction, and with the desire, we are able to get the population out of the situation in which they are in [...]"

At this summit, it was also for the Minister of Foreign Affairs to raise international awareness on the necessity to ensure that aid reaches directly to the state institutions.

"[...] It is necessary that the international community work with us so that in the near future, we can fly with our own wings, and what we mean by that is that they need to invest in state institutions, because the institutions as we know, with years of lack of funding, years where many funds are going through institutions that are not governmental institutions [NGOs]..... in result, our institutions have become very weak. We asked them to invest in the institutions, so that we can be in a position where tomorrow we will be able to take things in hand [...]"