From Caribbean360

WASHINGTON D.C., United States, Friday June 13, 2014, CMC – Haiti is embarking upon a development plan that is aimed at making it an “emerging country by 2030,” Prime Minister Laurent Salvador Lamothe has said.

The country has developed a three year investment programme with assistance from the World \bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is designed to “achieve accelerated, balanced economic growth and poverty reduction”.

Prime Minister Lamothe said that the 2014-2016 project is part of the strategy Haiti is developing as embarks upon a “path of change” and that the development plan “is designed to make Haiti an emerging country by 2013”.

Haiti is recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed an estimated 300,000 people and left more than a million others homesless. In addition, the 7.0 quake destroyed much of the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country’s infrastructure.

Lamothe described the plan as “our long-term road map for bringing about a lasting and significant improvement in the quality of life and standard of living of the people, of every Haitian man, woman, and child”.

He said that reforming Haiti would be on the basis of four sustainable development pillars including economic reform and reconstruction, to be achieved through strong economic growth, “based on an increase in our farming, manufacturing, and tourism potential, the creation of businesses, and foreign direct investment” as well as regional development and planning through a balanced development of the territory and careful management of the natural resources and biodiversity.

He said the social reform exercise would utilise “our resources for the development of all, with a focus on social cohesion, solidarity among regions and social groups, and the preservation of our cultural identity” and reforming the government institutions and departments, “to make them more attentive to the needs of the population, especially its most impoverished segments, and more accountable and fair to our people”.

Lamothe said that the three-year programme is based “ on a frank and honest interpretation of our situation and the recent accomplishments of our government.

“It incorporates traditional factors of economic growth and poverty reduction to maintain our economic, social, and political stability, and combines them with innovative approaches .., on regional restructuring and development, the economic partners needed, social redistribution, and good government, aimed at accelerating the pace of our development.

“More specifically, this document describes the guidelines, choices, and projects to be implemented for rapid and sustainable economic growth, designed to maximize job creation, reduce poverty in all of its manifestations, and build a large, solid middle class, for a balanced distribution of the proceeds of growth throughout the country, and for establishing the rule of law to ensure justice and security for all.”

He said the project also details priority projects to be implemented in the short run to put the country squarely on the path of reform, while maintaining and expanding recent social gains.

He said the three-year programme “constitutes a guide for including Haiti in the international trade circuit and thus enabling it to play its deserved role in the Caribbean” and that it “studies the environment that needs to be built if Haiti is to move away from reliance on international aid and gradually improve the living conditions in the country.

“It describes the ways and means to make Haiti an emerging country in the next 20 years, taking into account the many challenges facing us: major risks, environmental deterioration, poverty, social inequalities, endemic unemployment, a huge informal market, a fragile central government and weak local and regional governments.”

Lamothe said that Haiti’s development partners and donors in the international community have an important part to play “in our efforts to attain our objectives and in the development and reconstruction of our country”.

He said the 2014-2016 Three-Year Investment Programme and its framework will enable them to place their participation in the context of a pre-established whole, thus ensuring greater efficiency and sustainability.

IMAGE: HAITI PRIME MINISTER, LAURENT SALVADOR LAMOTHE (FILE PHOTO)

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