(11 August 2011) Today, the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, visited the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) headquarters in Santiago, Chile, where he met with the Executive Secretary of the Organization, Alicia Bárcena.
Accompanied by a group of co-workers, President Martelly gave an account of his government's priorities, which include, guaranteeing universal access to education for the population of Haiti, providing housing solutions to the families affected by the devastating earthquake which struck the island on 12 January 2010, achieving self-reliance in the area of safety, attracting investments to generate sustainable employment, and developing decentralization policies.
"Haiti has a new task group which operates under the Rule of Law," stressed the leader, who said he felt honoured to visit ECLAC.
The Executive Secretary said that it was an honour for the Organization to welcome the President of Haiti, a country which the institution is particularly interested in working with.
The head of the United Nations regional commission, who along with directors and experts of the Organization welcomed Martelly, said: "ECLAC, as you all know, is not a donor organization, it is an institution whose objective is to think on Latin America and the Caribbean from the own region, and for this reason it can provide ideas and suggestions, such as those in the document ‘Time for equality: closing gaps, opening trails'."
Ms. Bárcena said that ECLAC could offer help to conduct the population census of the island scheduled for 2013, as well as help to reinforce its statistical capacity and the study of opportunities for productive development in the Caribbean country.
Following the meeting between President Martelly and the Executive Secretary, technical teams from both ECLAC and the Government of Haiti have met to make progress in the different collaboration spaces.
This Thursday, 11 August, Martelly is carrying out an official visit to Chile, which includes a meeting with President Sebastián Piñera. It is the first tour the Haitian mandate has carried out to a Latin American country since he was sworn in as president on 14 May.
Tomorrow, he will visit Argentina where he will meet with the country's President, Cristina Fernández.
Any queries should be addressed to the ECLAC Public Information and Web Services Section. E-mail: dpisantiago@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 210 2040.
