VZCZCXRO1883
OO RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #1784/01 3121846
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081846Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7165
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 1694
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 0084
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 1508
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 2336
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC 0931
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCOWCV/CCGDSEVEN MIAMI FL
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 001784 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR, DRL, S/CRS, INR/IAA 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PAS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
TREASURY FOR MAUREEN WAFER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL HA
SUBJECT: CODEL BINGAMAN MEETING WITH PRESIDENT PREVAL 
 
PORT AU PR 00001784  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (U) This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please 
handle accordingly. 
 
Summary 
----------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Senators Bingaman, Harkin and Corker and several 
staffers met with Haitian President Rene Preval October 26 
and reviewed Haiti,s main development and assistance 
priorities.  The President highlighted Haiti,s priority 
needs as security, anti-corruption, broader economic 
development, education, and energy infrastructure.  The 
Senators placed special emphasis on Haiti,s need for more 
teachers and offered ideas on how the U.S. could help.  The 
President,s economic advisor argued for a restructuring of 
HOPE  (Haitian Hemispheric Partnership Through Partnership 
Encouragement) legislation to give Haiti more flexibility on 
knitted fabrics.  End summary. 
 
Haiti,s Priorities 
------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Ambassador accompanied the Senators.  Also in 
the meeting were staffers Chris Stone (Bingaman), Rosemary 
Gutierrez (Harkin), Anne Oswalt (Corker), and Scott Miller 
(Energy Committee), and PolCouns Bosshart (notetaker).  Also 
participating on the Haitian side were Prime Minister Jacques 
Edouard Alexis and Presidential adviser Gabriel Verret. 
Senator Bingaman stated that the U.S. was looking for ways to 
assist in stabilizing Haiti, and asked the President which 
areas he recommended.  After highlighting the U.S. as the 
largest donor country in Haiti, Preval pointed out that the 
HOPE Act had created 3,000 jobs in Haiti, although it needed 
some "adjustments."  Preval then noted the primacy of 
security for Haiti.  The UN in Haiti has created conditions 
of security and stability.  Drug trafficking, however, 
remained as a threat to that stability.  This type of crime 
thrived wherever there was a weak justice system, police, and 
government.  Haiti,s priority was therefore to strengthen 
the police and justice system.  Haiti,s second priority was 
the prosecution of corruption and smuggling.  Eliminating 
bribes would level the playing field for investors and 
increase government revenues from 7 percent to 15 percent of 
GDP.  With these programs in place, Haiti would aim to revive 
the economy over the next three years.  To help the economy, 
Haiti would also have to make it easier to set up a business 
by setting up a "one-stop shopping" approach. 
 
Energy 
-------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Senator Bingaman asked how the U.S. might help 
address Haiti,s lack of a developed electrical energy system 
as well as deforestation caused by peasants, clearing trees 
to make charcoal.  The President replied that the country had 
to expand generation capacity.  Currently, there was 200 MW 
of electricity available for the capital Port-au-Prince in 
the face of a 2,000 MW demand.  The private sector hesitated 
to invest in power generation because of the difficulty in 
recovering costs (Note: payment discipline among Haiti,s 
retail energy consumers is very lax.  End note.)  Haiti,s 
national electricity company had a loss rate of 50 percent. 
Most consumers were too poor to pay.  Haiti had to reduce 
losses as well as generation costs.  Haiti was converting 
fossil fuel generating plants to run on a heavy type of 
diesel or fuel oil that could not be used in automobiles or 
trucks and that therefore was not vulnerable to pilferage. 
Another approach was to allow neighborhoods to manage their 
electricity bill payments block by block. 
 
Education 
------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Senator Harkin proposed that Haiti and the U.S. 
embark on a unique bilateral program on education.  The 
senator suggested a numbers of areas of possible cooperation: 
 teacher training, education infrastructure, helping with 
teachers, pay, curriculum building, and establishing school 
 
PORT AU PR 00001784  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
districts.  The U.S. Department of Education might set up 
something like an "Education Peace Corps" for work with 
Haiti.  The President agreed that there could be no 
development without education.  Education had been his sole 
campaign promise.  A firm U.S.-Haiti focus on education could 
potentially solve the problem.  Haiti had half a million 
school-age children who were not in school.  Putting them all 
in school with one meal a day would drastically change the 
situation.  Senator Corker recalled his sojourn in Haiti 25 
years ago during which he had helped build a school. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Presidential adviser Gabriel Verret illustrated the 
teacher shortage by pointing to the example of Kenya, which 
had quickly expanded the number of children in school but 
quickly bumped into a ceiling of teachers.  Haiti had fewer 
than 50,000 teachers and 500,000 school-age children not in 
school.  Haiti could not produce teachers fast enough. 
Verret proposed tapping Haitian-Americans, who could be 
induced to spend one-two years teaching in their country of 
origin.  A "Teach for Haiti" program might effectively 
mobilize Haiti,s diaspora.  Senator Bingaman proposed 
establishing teacher training programs in Haiti with U.S. 
help.  Senator Harkin observed that all Haitian teachers 
would not necessarily need college degrees to teach primary 
school-aged children. 
 
The Economy 
---------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Senator Corker asked about the President,s overall 
national priorities.  Preval listed them as security, 
fighting corruption, and then making registration of 
businesses easier by introducing "one-stop shopping."  Haiti 
needed an investment protection law, more reliable 
electricity, and smoother, cheaper port procedures.  Haiti 
currently had one of the most expensive ports in the region. 
Preval expressed a concern that Haiti avoid the pattern now 
observed in the Dominican Republic of a fast-growing economy 
(8-10 percent) accompanied by growing poverty.  Stability in 
Haiti was also a function of the gap between rich and poor. 
Presidential adviser Verret stated that Haiti needed a lot of 
job creation in a hurry.  The formal sector employed only 
250,000 people out of 4 million working-age adults.  Haiti 
needed investment fast.  The HOPE program had created 
approximately 3,500 jobs in a few months, but left Haiti very 
little flexibility on knitted fabrics, where it could 
compete, but lots of room on woven fabrics, where Haiti was 
not a player.  Haiti was hoping for a "HOPE II" that would 
address these shortcomings. 
 
¶8.  (U) Delegation has cleared this cable. 
TIGHE