Calls for greater Haiti investment
Business leaders call for greater investment to rebuild Haiti's infrastructure
Friday, 29, Jan 2010 01:48
By Anisa Kadri.
Business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland have called for greater investment to help in the rebuilding of Haiti.
According to the Guardian newspaper, ministers and financial experts held key talks on how to restore the country's economy and limited infrastructure in wake of the devastating earthquake which struck earlier this month.
The Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim said the long-tern reconstruction of Haiti represented a chance for the World Trade Organisation to show it was committed to causes other than the prosperity of the west.
He suggested that Haiti needed "a massive re-planting programme", proposing that it could perhaps be financed by the World Bank.
Meanwhile, Irish entrepreneur Denis O'Brien outlined the business prospects of the area, saying: "Haiti is on the doorstep of the biggest consumer market in the world - the USA".
As the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, former US president Bill Clinton was also present at the meeting and praised the Haitian people.
The death toll from the worst quake to strike Haiti in over 200 years is expected to reach around 200,000, with another 1.5 million left homeless.
On Wednesday rescue teams remarkably pulled a teenage girl from the rubble, over two weeks after the earthquake.