ARTICLE - MARTELLY - BACK IN HAITI

BACK FROM NEW YORK, PRESIDENT MARTELLY IS SATISFIED
(Haiti Libre) -

President Michel Martelly returned to Haiti on Sunday, after having participated in the 66th General Assembly of the Organization of the United Nations, which was held last week in New York. Surrounded by members of his delegation, in the diplomatic lounge of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, the Head of State stated that the first goal of his travel was "to strengthen the multilateral cooperation while defining politics of Haiti to the donor countries."

The Head of State said that he had during his stay fruitful meetings with senior UN officials. He also expressed satisfaction with the meetings that he had with the Heads of State and representatives of several countries including Brazil, the United States, Canada, Rwanda, Finland and Norway and welcomed them, to project a positive image of Haiti to the international community. He said that he met with members of the diaspora and that it was discussed among other things, the financing of the construction of a "highway of the diaspora". The Head of State also mentioned that members of his delegation represented Haiti.... at the "Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)", whose representatives are expected in Haiti in late October.

"[...] I invited the countries that made pledges after the earthquake, to meet their promises by contributing to the reconstruction fund. We also stressed the need to strengthen the IHRC [Interim Haiti Recovery Commission] in its role of coordination of aid that we receive. As part of a punctual projet of reconstruction, I requested an immediate support of $48 million.... A project where we will relocate the people living in six camps [about 30,000 people] in 16 neighborhoods that we will redevelop. The IHRC has already given $30 million, with which we are currently working, but the project itself costs $78 million; so we made a request for the rest of the money.

We also discussed the four priorities of the Government which are: education, employment, the rule of law and the environment. We have requested an additional support for these four areas and stated that all the money that will be invested in Haiti must remain within this framework, behind the President's vision to enable him to implement this policy.

With the United Nations we have addressed several issues, including cholera, AIDS, women, education, access to credit, the major natural events and technical assistance. We know that cholera will cost 1.5 billion dollars if we want to get rid of it. [including, the infrastructure of water supply and sanitation across the country]. The case of the Minustah was also discussed. I explained to the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, that this departure can only be progressive to the extent that we already have our plan to develop our own defense force. A plan that we presented to the friends of Haiti last Friday. We also requested an increase in the budget allocated to Haiti and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) has responded positively, so it's still good news [...]"

Again sending his congratulations to the Lower House for the unanimous ratification of the prime minister, Dr. Garry Conille, the Head of State declared "...the ratification in the Chamber of Deputies sent a clear signal to foreign investors, partners and the diaspora [...] we hope that the Prime Minister-designate, in the national interest, will soon be ratified [in the Senate] so that together we can bring the country under construction and Haiti to work..."