President Michel Martelly CARICOM inaugural appearance

President Michel Martelly marked his inaugural appearance at a meeting of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders by urging them to remove the visa requirements for Haitians as well as adopt French as an official language of the 15-member regional integration grouping.

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Addressing the ceremonial opening of the 32nd CARICOM summit here on Thursday night, Martelly said that the visa situation was “close to my heart” and that he hoped his regional colleagues would move expeditiously to remove the visa requirements needed for his nationals.

Martelly, who came into office following the presidential election in his French-speaking CARICOM nation, addressed the conference in his native language, adding “the CARICOM integration system is one of the most advanced in our hemisphere, but it is also the only one in the world where English is the sole language (and) where 50 per cent of its population is French and Creole speaking.

“We hope that our friends and colleagues will understand our apprehension and will support this legitimate demand,” he added.

Martelly said that as a sign of Haiti’s growing interest in CARICOM, it will do its best to activate itself more into the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.

“We will do our best to activate this process so that the Haitian economy will integrate in a short term basis, the other economies of CARICOM states in the special areas of agriculture, industry and services.

“We are more than willing to offer to the CARICOM investors a stable environment to participate in the sustainable economical and developmental growth of Haiti,” he said as he took the opportunity to that CARICOM for the preferential tariff for certain Haitian products in the regional market. 

Martelly said that in 2009, the Haitian parliament had ratified and harmonised about 40 per cent of the Haitian tariff under the Common External Tariff (CET) and that his administration would be working to get the remaining 60 per cent approved.

The Haitian President also reminded his regional colleagues that during the Third CARICOM-Cuba conference held in Havana in September 2010 a decision was taken to create a Haitian-CARICOM Fund to help rebuild the country following the devastation caused by the earthquake last year that killed an estimated 300,000 people and left more than a million others homeless.

He said “some significance steps have been accomplished since then for this fund to be available,” adding “I will give formal instructions to start back the negotiations with the Caribbean Development Bank not only for concerning this fund but also concerning the actual state of Haiti within the bank”.

Earlier, outgoing CARICOM Chairman Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of Grenada said that the lethargy which attended the inflow of the promised funds for reconstruction of Haiti “was in its own way, almost as tragic as the event itself.

“Six months later despite the strenuous efforts of all, including CARICOM through the Special Representative of the Heads of Government to Haiti... PJ Patterson, the situation remains much the same.

“It is a woeful indictment on the international community and a major disappointment to us all. Nevertheless, we must maintain our diplomatic efforts in this important regional cause,” said Thomas.

Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse also commented on the “many challenges facing the people of Haiti, saying “it will need the full support from all of us”.

President Martelly said that he hoped by the time his term office is over, he would have improved significantly the lives of his nationals and that he was also looking towards strengthening cooperation with the University of the West Indies (UWI) “on order to reinforce the educational capacity of Haitians.

He told the leaders that it was also his desire for Haiti to host their annual summit in 2013.