Haiti rebuilding not fast enough

PORT-AU-PRINCE - RECONSTRUCTION efforts after Haiti's devastating January 12 quake were 'not moving fast enough' for the homeless victims, a French representative said during a visit to the Caribbean nation.

Pierre Dusquesne, France's delegate to the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (CIRH), which met on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince, said he saw positive signs. 'Things are moving forward, we have a real plan for the development of Haiti, we have real coordination between donors,' he said. 'But it's a fact that for the people who are still living in tents, in makeshift shelters, things are not moving fast enough.'

Mr Dusquesne, who is responsible for economic issues related to Haitian reconstruction and development, is one of 26 members of the CIRH. The group, which comprises 13 foreign and 13 Haitian members, met for several hours Tuesday in Port-au-Prince during a session attended by Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former US president Bill Clinton.

'We approved some 30 projects and identified financing for them,' from programs to clear rubble from Port-au-Prince's streets, to the construction of shelters for those made homeless by the quake, officials said. 'Now we cannot say that donors are not keeping their promises. We have firm pledges of US$904 million to finance close to 30 projects,' Mr Bellerive said.

'We are not going to simply rebuild building, we are going to build a country, a state, a new economy. It's absolutely central and the CIRH is a means not an end, but it's working well,' Mr Duquesne said.

Ahead of the session, the vice-president of Boeing, Anna Roosevelt, announced the firm was committing US$900,000 (S$1.2 billion) to education in Haiti. The company has pledged $2.2 million in total for Haitian relief and gave $1.3 million to the American Red Cross for relief work in the country.

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