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04 April 2007

United States Begins $20 Million Haiti Stabilization Initiative

Rice announces an additional $200 million in aid for Haiti in 2007

By Stephen Kaufman

USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- Thanks to an improved security situation in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, the United States is commencing its $20 million stabilization initiative, which will fund an employment program in Cité Soleil, one of the city's poorest and most dangerous sections, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said April 4.

Rice, speaking with Haitian Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis in Washington, said the Bush administration will ensure that “a good deal of that money” goes directly to areas like Cité Soleil, which has been plagued by gang-related violence. (See related article.)

Rice said the United States hopes the funds, whose distribution will start in April, “will give to those people a sense of hope, a sense of a future, so that they can turn away from dangerous pursuits and toward education, jobs and a better life.”

The secretary said the United States also will provide an additional $200 million in assistance to Haiti for the 2007 fiscal year. That funding is intended to improve the country's political stability, security and health care and promote private-sector growth. The sum will bring the total amount of U.S. assistance between 2004 and 2007 to more than $800 million. The United States continues to be the largest single donor country to Haiti. (See related article.)

Rice said Haiti and the United States also are cooperating on economic development through the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE), which allows duty-free treatment in the United States for certain products from Haiti.

The two countries also are working together to combat narcotics trafficking and crime, she said. This includes training Haitian police and judiciary.

Secretary Rice said that in partnership with the international community, Prime Minister Alexis' government is “making good progress” on behalf of the Haitian people.

“We believe that the people of Haiti will overcome their historic circumstances, their historic challenges, and that indeed, they will be triumphant,” she said, pledging the friendship of the United States “as you make that journey toward greater stability and greater prosperity for Haiti's democracy.”

Prime Minister Alexis said his country needs to “go beyond” its successes in improving security and macroeconomic conditions.

“Now we have to concentrate on efforts on economic growth and job creation and also to capitalize on the results that we have obtained in terms of security and the stabilization of Haiti. What we need to do now is really to increase the revenues of income of the different people and the families in Haiti,” he said.

Alexis also welcomed plans for regional cooperation on biofuels as discussed April 1 by President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which would enlist Haiti as a biofuels producer, promoting economic growth in the country, as well as benefiting the environment. (See related article.)

“We're asking our partners in the United States to help Haiti get back in business,” Alexis said. “I know that greater and greater efforts will be made in order for American corporations to come and do business in Haiti. And for that we'll create a regulatory and security environment that will be attractive to investment.”

A transcript of Secretary Rice and Prime Minister Alexis' remarks is available on the State Department Web site.