PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT-ELECT OF HAITI

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT-ELECT OF HAITI

While cautious about not promising things he could not deliver, Haitian President-elect René García Préval said this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference that, upon taking office, he would focus on building sound Government institutions and an investment-friendly and regulatory climate to attract private-sector investment and official development assistance for much needed infrastructure projects.

Food and humanitarian aid, as well as new jobs, were urgently needed to calm the country’s difficult economic and political situation and provide basic necessities and hope for the future, particularly for vulnerable Haitians, he told correspondents.

Haiti would then require medium-term investments -- through the development plan known as the Interim Cooperation Framework -- to build road, electricity, water, sanitation, health and educational infrastructure, as well as the unblocking of $1.2 billion in pledged funds, he continued.  The country would also need private-sector investment, which he did not expect to arrive until political stability was ensured.  While he said the country would need 25 to 50 years to address its myriad development concerns, he declined to give a specific dollar amount, payment schedule or timetable.

Mr. Préval made his remarks after addressing the United Nations Security Council.  During the meeting, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, delegates from 35 Member States and representatives from United Nations bodies addressed the Council on the situation in Haiti.  Mr. Préval, who was Haiti’s President from 1996 to 2001, won the first-round presidential election on 7 February, and is expected to assume office during the first half of May.

Mr. Préval said he would ask the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to extend its mandate to give Haiti time to strengthen and rid its police force of corruption, as well as reform and strengthen the judicial system, but declined to give a specific timetable for ending the mission.

As to a reporter’s question concerning the bourgeois-led coup d’états, during the recent past, and tensions between Haiti’s bourgeois and lower class, Mr. Préval said reconciliation between the two classes was not possible.  He planned to focus on cooperation, involving all sectors of society to prepare a common vision for Haiti’s future and address myriad problems, including the country’s widespread environmental degradation that affected all classes.  Mr. Préval warned that he would never be able to solve the fundamental problem that existed between capital and labour.  Rather he would work to establish a secure investment environment to attract the capital needed to create jobs.

As to his strategies to reduce child mortality in Haiti, the highest in the Western Hemisphere, Mr. Préval said the high rate of child deaths was linked to Haiti’s socio-economic woes, particularly waterborne and insect-carried diseases, resulting from poor water and sanitation services.  The Interim Cooperation Framework had a significant water sanitation programme, but greater prevention measures were needed to deal with diseases carried by water and insects.

Concerning plans to release political prisoners incarcerated since the 9 February 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Mr. Préval stressed that he had yet to take office, but that he had asked the interim Prime Minister, the President and the Minister of Justice to address the situation, as soon as possible.

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For information media • not an official record