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Haiti - Economy : The country relies on the mining sector for its development
04/06/2013 11:41:09

Monday, opened the first Forum of Mining of Haiti [June 3 and 4], organized by the Council for Economic and Social Development (CDES) in partnership with the Ministries of Economy and Finance and Public Works. The Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, delivered a speech before an audience composed of the Ministers and State Secretaries, of Senator and Representatives, Mayors and local elected, of President of the CDES, of the Representative of the World Bank in of Haiti, members of diplomatic and consular corps, representatives of the private sector, employers' organization, the Civil Society, various panelists and speakers both local and international.

Listen the speech of the Prime Minister :

After his speech, Laurent Lamothe stated during a press briefing "[...] I came here to attend the 1st Mining Forum of Haiti, we know that it is important that Haiti will be able to diversify its sources of income. Today, Haiti benefits mainly of revenue from Customs and DGI, but for the value of development and the level where we want to lead the country, we must be able to have new sources of revenue.

The issue of mines is an important issue, however, it is necessary that this be done in a professional manner, it is necessary that this be done in the national interest and in the interest of the people who live in areas where mines are, and finally it is necessary that we be clear about the terms of reference and what revenues Haiti will receive.

But the first and most important thing for us, is that when we talk about mining, we know that we do not have a great tradition in this area, we want to ensure that Haiti will not be at the bottom.

This is why we have made a cooperation with a South African institute to help us make an inventory of our mineral resources in order to better negotiate contracts with our partners [...] it is necessary that we know the value of mines that we have [...] From this point, we will be able also, with the cooperation of consultants, be able to work, so that we can in a second phase, enter in the question of negotiations. But the first thing is to make an assessment of the value of mining basement and have accurate and correct information on this subject.

So this is what we came to do to this forum, we make a plea, different experts will speak, there will be different lawyers that will speak, there will be also firms operating here already in the exploration that will intervene.

We know that the Senate took a measure, on which we agree and that we will respect. That is why before doing anything, we need to know the value, and once we will know it, we will sit with the Senate, so that we can together resolve the situation in the interest of the country. Because this is a huge sector, very complicated, very difficult, we want to ensure that we take the right decisions [...]"

HL/ SL/ HaitiLibre