US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has attended the launch of a $300m (£187m)
industrial park in the Haitian town of Caracol. The project is part of US
efforts to help Haiti recover from the devastation it suffered in the 2010
earthquake. The US has invested $124m
(£77m) in the project, which it hopes will create thousands of jobs. At a grand opening ceremony Haiti's President
Michel Martelly said the country was "open for business".
Mr
Martelly said that too often the images of Haiti shown around the world were
sad, but that Haiti had more to offer. "We
are committed to taking all appropriate measures to make it easier for you to
invest in Haiti," President Martelly told investors and celebrities at the
opening ceremony. Former US President
Bill Clinton, who now serves as the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, also attended
the launch of the park in the impoverished north of Haiti, some 160km (100
miles) from the capital, Port-au-Prince.
South
Korean clothing manufacturer Sae-A Trading says it will create 20,000 permanent
jobs over the next six years at the Caracol Park and build 5,000 houses in the
surrounding area for its workers. Critics fear the project could benefit
foreign investors more than local workers. They say factory jobs rarely manage
to pull locals out of poverty. But Hillary Clinton said projects such as the
Caracol industrial park created sustainable economic growth. She said the US had "learned that
supporting long-term prosperity in Haiti meant more than providing aid, it
required investments in infrastructure and the economy that would help the
Haitian people achieve their own dreams".
Haiti
is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and suffered further in the
2010 earthquake, which destroyed much of the country, and from a subsequent
cholera epidemic that has killed more than 7,000 people.
BBC News
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