ARTICLE - LAMOTHE - OPEN GOVERNMENT

LAURENT LAMOTHE FOR A GOVERNMENT OF OPENNESS
(Haiti Libre) -

The Prime Minister-designate, Laurent Lamothe who was ratified Thursday in the lower house, is finalizing his Statement of General Policy that he should present to Parliament, in all likelihood, Monday, or Tuesday at the latest. "The general policy statement is ready. My team is putting in the finishing touches. It should not be long. We're at 42 pages. There will be additions, but not too many," declared the ratified Prime Minister.

In an exclusive interview conducted by our colleague from Radio France Internationale (RFI) Amélie Baron, Laurent Lamothe declared, "We already have a plan of action that we'll run with an extensive cleaning operation of the city of Port-au-Prince, and also a large-scale maintenance of our roads that have had many problems with the rains. We will begin the reconstruction process of Haiti with the funds available [...]

[...] The President has chosen me as his prime minister, and we have had a relationship for over 11 years. We know each other well. We learned to work together. We work well together, so I think that we will make a good team. Above all, I think that the dynamics now with the Parliament is to do the work, for the reconstruction, and the radical overhaul of Haiti [...] [...] The Martelly-Lamothe government will be a government of openness. We are ready to receive other groups in the government; to have a larger government, and this also will encourage the opening of a consensus in the Haitian society; especially in the governmental sector and politics. We want set the pace. We want to show a difference, and we want to say to the whole country, and the rest of the world, that this government is serious, this government wants to work, and wants to engage the international community towards a sustainable development path for a better Haiti."

Concerning the financial independence of Haiti, the ratified Prime Minister gave in this interview a few avenues. "We depend on more than 90% of our investment budget from the international community. Tomorrow, Haiti needs to strengthen its customs infrastructure. We must strengthen our tax structures. Today, there are only 3% of Haitians who pay taxes, that yield $425 million per year. If you triple that, it will already surpass $1 billion; strengthening our customs infrastructure, to cover the loss of more than $500 million U.S. dollars per year. So with those two amounts, and with good management and good governance of current funds, I think that Haiti has a beautiful future. We must work to not be as dependent, but work to fly with our own wings. And this is the intention of the Martelly-Lamothe government."