Business
Haiti open for business – Prime Minister Lamothe
Haiti’s Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe (pictured), says his country is hoping to attract high-end tourists and multinational investors — instead of constant aid handouts — so it can get on its feet after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Lamothe said Saturday he recognizes that’s an ambitious dream for a country where 52 percent of the people live below the poverty line and where infrastructure is still lacking.
Still, he pushed that concept — and a bid to build up Haiti’s tourism industry — in meetings with CEOs this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Haiti is open for business,” Lamothe said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Haiti still has huge humanitarian needs and little more than half of the US$5.3 billion in aid promised after the earthquake has been disbursed.
Lamothe, however, said “we are not going to depend on handouts indefinitely.”
Yet humanitarian groups are not likely to go away soon, they have been providing many services to Haitians because the government has not been in a position to do so effectively.
