On Tuesday, Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, accompanied by Senators Jocelerme Privert and Wencesclass Lambert, the National Authorising Officer Jean Edner Nelson and of General Coordinator of the Office of Management and Human Resources (OMRH) Uder Antoine arrived in France, for a 4-days working visit to Paris and Brussels.

During his stay in Europe, the Prime Minister will meet his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault, Abdou Diouf, Secretary General of the Francophonie, Andris Piebalgs, the European Commissioner for Development, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, Didier J.L. Reynders, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium and several other french and European officials.

The purpose of this official travel is to strengthen the ties of friendship and cooperation between Haiti and its European partners, to reassure them on the political will of the administration Martelly to meet its commitments and to promote private investment in the country to combat unemployment and high cost of living.

The Head of Government, will take advantage of his short stay in France to meet the Haitian community and present the significant progress made in Haiti over the past two years.

During Tuesday evening, a reception was held in his honor at the House of Latin America by the economic and cultural actors. Among the guests there were the friends of Haiti, politicians, businessmen, intellectuals and cultural operators.

Moreover, during an interview on television channel France 24, Laurent Lamothe called the donors to provide their assistance directly to the Government of Haiti, in order to reconstruct the country. The Prime Minister deplored that on the 9 billion dollars of aid allocated by the international community [52%] or 4 billion dollars, went to Haiti and almost all of that money went to NGOs and UN agencies, present in the country. Stressing that only 1% was given in direct budget support to the Haitian Government. He urged donor countries and donors to pass through the Government of Haiti, which according to him, is best placed to manage such assistance in order to ensure optimal use, highlighting the efforts made by his government in the field of infrastructure and the fight against corruption.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre