Friday, December 1, 2006

by Gabriela Calotti

MADRID, Spain (AFP): An international donor conference on Thursday welcomed reforms in Haiti which delegates said had cleared the path to debt relief, though they urged the impoverished Caribbean state to push ahead with further changes.

The conference, attended by 85 delegations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, noted a "shared responsibility between Haiti and the international community to tackle the challenge of the effectiveness of aid" to the poorest country in the Americas.

Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis hailed the progress his government had been able to make to date and welcomed the international community's willingness to recognise as much, while accepting more had to be done.

"This is why we are committed to maintaining the course we have set regarding economic management ... to continue the programme of public modernisation, the fight against corruption," Alexis told the closing press conference.

Two thirds of the Haitian population of 8.3 million lives on less than a dollar a day and average gross domestic product per person measures just 346 dollars.

After Transparency International dubbed Haiti the country with the most endemic corruption in the world, delegates were anxious to highlight last week's IMF and World Bank judgement that the country had reached stage two of three towards qualifying for debt relief through its reform programme.

The IMF last week noted "good progress in strengthening macroeconomic performance and introducing key structural reforms."

Debt relief, with the country's external debt topping a billion dollars, is crucial and the IMF and World Bank assessment was seen as a major step forward as it can now begin paying off the sum under the terms of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

In a final conference statement, delegates said that "participants welcome the decision" of the two financial bodies, seen as "opening the way to an annulling of Haiti's debts in the coming years."

Under the HIPC initiative Haiti can pay off a 212.9 million dollar tranche of its debt before moving to the next stage which would permit multilateral debt relief of another 464.4 million dollars.

Earlier, Alexis had told delegates that his country was at a crossroads in its development.

"Haiti finds itself at a historical turning point ... in which it needs - more than ever - assistance from its partners," he told the opening session of the conference.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who earlier had told the gathering that donors would tie their aid to Haitian efforts to ensure "good governance", hailed the efforts of President Rene Preval, elected last February, to "consolidate strong and independent democratic institutions".

"The cornerstone is good government," the Spanish minister said, adding that the priority for donors was to support "the modernisation of the state and the development of private initiative."

Foreign governments have pledged to provide Haiti with 1.75 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros) since the ousting of President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

Alexis said he wanted a part of the aid to be reserved for the budgets of different Haitian ministries rather than for specific projects.

The cash raised will be ploughed into areas including the organisation of upcoming municipal and local elections, the development of a professional police force, reform of the judicial system and the disarmament and reinsertion of armed militia groups.

  Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed

  Printable version