Associate InstitutionsCaribbean Development Bank CDBHaitiMemberPress Releases

CDB, Petroleum Fund Assistance for Haiti’s Recovery

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will contribute US$17 million towards Haiti’s social and economic recovery in keeping with the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) commitment to assisting that Member State in its reconstruction process.

At a Donor Community Meeting specially convened by the President of Haiti, H.E. Rene Preval, on Tuesday 25 July in Haiti, CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community Relations, Ambassador Colin Granderson stated that CARICOM stood ready to play its part in the work of Haiti’s international partners in helping to stimulate reforms, strengthen institutions and promote political, economic and social development.

Apart from the sum being provided by the CDB, Ambassador Granderson disclosed that Haiti will also have access to the Petroleum Fund established by Trinidad and Tobago in 2004 to provide relief to CARICOM Member States experiencing economic hardship resulting from persistently high international prices for crude oil and petroleum products.

Ambassador Granderson stated that plans were in train for a CARICOM technical assessment mission to visit Haiti in the coming weeks to work along with a Haitian counterpart team, in response to a request by President Preval. He said the Community also intended to re-establish a technical office in Port-au-Prince, to facilitate Haiti’s “regulatory and other efforts, as well as functional cooperation with the Community in areas such as health, education, agriculture and natural disaster mitigation.”

Ambassador Granderson said that Haiti’s re-engagement with CARICOM provided it with the “political, technical and functional support of the sub-regional grouping whose integration process continued to advance and to deepen.”

He assured that the Community would do “the utmost with its own resources to lend support to Haiti’s efforts to create the necessary conditions for reconciliation, reconstruction and recovery.” In this regard, Ambassador Granderson noted that CARICOM will focus on “resuming the support for Haiti’s establishment of the required juridical, regulatory and administrative arrangements arising from the integration process.”

The Donor Community Meeting saw pledges coming from the international community of US$750 million, a sum in excess of Haiti’s request for $500 million to expedite rebuilding activities for the period up to September 2007.

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