PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton assured Haitians on Thursday that the latest aid from America is not just a short-term fix for a country still struggling from last year’s devastating storms and grinding poverty that is among the worst in the world.
Clinton told reporters after riding in her motorcade through Port-au-Prince that she and President Barack Obama have a shared goal of creating jobs and ensuring stability in a country that has had little of either in recent years.
“The president and I had an excellent conversation reiterating what is his great hope: that he will see progress begun and finished to give the future back to the people of Haiti,” she said at a news conference inside the National Palace.
The U.S., Haiti’s largest benefactor, pledged $50 million in new aid at a donors conference Tuesday in Washington, bringing the American total for the year to $302 million.
Clinton, at a joint news conference with Haitian President Rene Preval, said the U.S. commitment to Haiti goes beyond what emerged at the donors conference.
“When we start to build roads, we must finish the roads. When we start to help farmers once again make their land rich and cultivatable, we want to be sure they harvest their crops,” she said.
Preval said Haiti is grateful for the foreign assistance, which makes up about 60 percent of the government’s budget, but said his country must become self-reliant.
Clinton, who is stopping in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic en route to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, also planned to visit a clothing factory that could benefit from a trade deal with the U.S. that is intended to spur Haiti’s dormant textile industry and create jobs.
The secretary of state’s visit comes at yet another crucial time for Haiti. The country has not recovered from last year’s food riots or from four tropical storms that killed nearly 800 people and caused $1 billion in damage.
