bill-clinton-haiti-un-marco-dormino.jpgMore than 200 business executives from around the world  converged on an investor conference in Haiti to help Bill Clinton expand the country’s garment, agriculture and energy industries. Clinton called it a sign of hope for economic growth and job creation.

“I’ve been working very hard on this. I personally recruited a lot of people to come here,” Clinton told reporters. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, of course, but I think you’ll see a lot of quite impressive new investments coming out of this.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon picked the former-President Clinton last spring as a Special Envoy to the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Earlier this month, Clinton told the Security Council that the country has “a remarkable opportunity” to overcome decades of misrule and neglect, but major hurdles remain and the international community must step up its support to ensure the Caribbean country can consolidate its gains.

The outlook for Haiti was positive, he said, with a government committed to building a modern State, large pledges of aid from donors, a diaspora willing to help, and goodwill from the international community.

“I am convinced that Haiti has a remarkable opportunity to escape its past,” Mr. Clinton stressed, noting that throughout the region, “there is a deep, wide sense that we can and should support” the country, considered the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

(Read the AP story via NPR)

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