By Lara Pickford-Gordon Tuesday, January 19 2010

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BACK HOME: Prime Minister Patrick Manning addresses the media last night shortly after he returned home from the Dominican Republic. ...

THE rehabilitation and reconstruction of earthquake-ravaged Haiti will cost an estimated US$2 billion annually according to “calculations” coming out of a meeting in the Dominican Republic yesterday. However, just how long it would take to rebuild that country is not yet known.

This was disclosed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning who attended that meeting called by the Presidency of the EU–Spain to discuss the Haitian situation. The meeting was hosted by the President of the Dominican Republic Lionel Fernandez and attended by Haitian President Rene Preval, representatives of Caricom, Canada, the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and World Bank.

Speaking at a press conference at the South Terminal of the Piarco International Airport shortly after returning home last night, Manning indicated financial resources will have to be mobilised internationally.

At the meeting, a proposal which was raised at last April’s Summit of the Americas hosted in TT – for a Development Fund for Haiti – was raised. Manning said the proposal was “modified” to include inviting other countries to participate.

He said TT also called for debt forgiveness since “rehabilitation could not take place with Haiti carrying any significant debt”. The idea was supported and included in the Santo Domingo Declaration.

Manning announced that discussion on financial support for Haiti will take place at a conference of donors on January 25 in Montreal, Canada.

Manning said any plan for Haiti must have “intimate” involvement of the government and people. He noted that the earthquake had worsened “a bad situation” and Haiti had to be put on a sustained path to development.

While there has been criticism of TT’s US$1M contribution to Haiti, Manning said this was an “initial position” to be made immediately available but that TT will also contribute to Caricom’s initiative (in the health sector intervention) when field hospitals are constructed. Manning said when the Development Fund is established, “we will make another contribution”.

Responding to a question on the US$1M contribution, the PM said his government was yet to identify the “best way” for the intervention to be made.

With local Gregory McAlpin still missing and feared dead in Haiti, Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, who also spoke last night, said his name was passed on to the US Embassy in Haiti and she also spoke yesterday to a senior official of a US delegation, to whom she also gave McAlpin’s name.

While his brother Garth has indicated an interest in going to Haiti, Gopee- Scoon said she tried to dissuade him from going by himself and instead asked him to head to Jamaica where he could await news of his brother’s fate.