P 281417Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0407
INFO HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000839 
 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ENRG EAID EAGR EINV ETRD BEXP HA
SUBJECT: HAITI ECONOMIC WEEKLY UPDATE FOR SEPTEMBER 14 TO SEPTEMBER 
18, 2009 
 
¶1. (U) Summary.  This is a weekly report on a variety of topics of 
interest which do not merit full reporting cables.  End summary. 
 
Debt Reduction 
-------------- 
 
¶2. (U) On Friday, September 18, Ambassador Kenneth Merten and GOH 
Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil signed a U.S.-Haiti Bilateral 
Debt Reduction Agreement, forgiving the remaining bilateral debt 
owed by Haiti to the U.S.  The USD 12.6 million debt was forgiven 
under the terms of the Paris Club, and followed HaitiQs achievement 
of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) completion point  at the 
end June, which triggered a USD one billion in multilateral external 
debt forgiveness. 
 
Budget 
------ 
 
¶3. (U) The lower house of the Haitian Parliament received the 
PetroCaribe Fund report on expenditures for post-hurricane emergency 
relief in 2008/2009 from the GOH on September 14, the last day of 
the session.  Deputy Levaillant Louis Jeune affirmed that the 
standing finance committees for both chambers of Parliament will now 
review the report. 
 
¶4. (U) The GOH has collected HTG 28.8 billion (USD 703 million) in 
current account revenue through August 2009, achieving 88 percent of 
its projections.  Current account expenditures totaled HTG 30.8 
billion (USD 751.5 million) accounting for 99 percent of total FY 09 
spending projections.  GOH investment spending, however, remains low 
at 29 percent of FY 09 projections. 
 
¶5. (U) The GOH attached a customs tariff increase to the FY 10 
budget when it was presentd to the House of Deputies in June. 
During the budget vote, lower house members gave the green light to 
the GOH for these higher tariffs on some products.  The Finance 
Committee chairman saw the increase as a government measure to 
protect the local market as well as to boost much-needed revenues. 
The tariff increases, however,  will apply only to FY 10 and will 
expire at the end of the fiscal year.  (Note: Full Haitian 
integration into CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, will eventually 
require nearly across the board increases in external tariff rates, 
which, except for gasoline tariffs of nearly 60 percent, have been 
historically very low, usually between 5 and 15 percent.  End 
note.) 
 
¶6. (U) The Senate Finance Committee discovered numerous deficiencies 
in the text of the budget law, already passed by the lower house of 
the Haitian parliament.  The senators agreed initially to vote in 
the budget as is and collaborate with the Ministry of Finance to 
make necessary corrections at a later date, but have now made some 
minor adjustments and sent it back to the Chamber of Deputies, which 
will now have to come back in special session to pass the budget 
before October 1, as mandated by the constitution. 
 
Award Winner 
------------ 
 
¶7. (U) AIC, a small Haitian insurance company, won an honorary 
mention award in the Pioneers in Prosperity (PiP) search for best 
regional SME entrepreneurs in the Caribbean.  PiP, an arm of the 
U.S. NGO On The Frontier (OTF), conducts an awards program comprised 
of national and regional competitions spanning the Caribbean, 
Africa, and Central America.  The competition, designed to highlight 
the role of SMEs in these poorer economies, is funded partly by the 
Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank 
(IDB). AIC was one of two Haitian national award winners who went on 
to the regional competition in Jamaica. 
 
Pig Disease Outbreak 
-------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) The latest outbreak of Teschen disease in La Vallee near 
Jacmel has killed more than five thousand pigs in two weeks.  The 
highly contagious viral disease, new to Haiti, is from an unknown 
source, since it is not found normally in Latin America.  It kills 
affected pigs in three to five days.  In February, cases were 
reported in Haiti's Artibonite department and in Leogane, a town 
between Port-au-Prince and Jacmel.  The Ministry of Agriculture is 
cautioning people to be aware of the symptoms and is warning against 
the consumption of infected pork, although there is no danger of 
transmission to humans. 
 
Potable Water Assistance 
------------------------ 
 
 
¶9. (U) Taiwan and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) 
signed a project agreement to improve drinking water in the Les 
Cayes-Jacmel area in the South and Southeastern departments of 
Haiti.  The USD 200,000 project will benefit 900 people. 
 
Real Estate 
----------- 
 
¶10. (U) Senator Rudy Heriveaux announced he will initiate a bill in 
the Haitian senate to address the high cost of renting real estate 
in Haiti.  The bill proposes to limit the rental rates for an 
individual building to 0.5 percent/month of the building's appraised 
value. The law, designed mainly to deal with high residential rental 
rates, could have a negative effect on the commercial rental market, 
where one percent/month would be more the norm.  (Note: 
Port-au-Prince is suffering from high residential rates due partly 
to large numbers of expatriates in NGOs and the UN Peacekeeping 
Mission pushing up demand.  Commercial/industrial properties, 
meanwhile, are few in number yet few are currently under 
construction for lack of credit and investment. End nte.) 
 
Aviation 
-------- 
 
¶11. (U) This week inSanto Domingo, Haiti's Civil Aviation Office 
(OFAC) Director General met with the Dominican Republc's 
Directorate of Civil Aviation to begin discusions over an air 
traffic agreement between the wo countries. In an unrelated 
development, it hasbeen rumored that American Airlines may soon 
begn service between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo