22040: (Chamberlain) Donors to pump $300 million into Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 24 (Reuters) - Foreign donors could pump
close to $300 million into Haiti over the next few months as the
hemisphere's poorest country seeks to breathe new life into its moribund
economy.
     U.S. Ambassador to Haiti James B. Foley announced on Monday the Bush
administration has authorized the release of $100 million in additional
funds to help Haiti cope with the situation it faces, following an armed
revolt that drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile on Feb. 29.
     That is in addition to $55 million already programmed for the current
fiscal year, plus $5 million to help run the Organization of American
States' mission to Haiti.
     With the new $100 million, U.S. assistance to Haiti totals $160
million for the current fiscal year.
     Foley said $35 million of the extra $100 million will be used to help
cover a budget gap left by the Aristide administration. The money probably
will be disbursed during the second half of June, U.S. officials said.
     "With the announcement of this urgent assistance, we are closing a
first chapter of our relations with Haiti with regard to the transition
under way," Foley told a news conference on Monday.
     The money will be used to improve security, to support the electoral
process, to strengthen governance and democracy and to create jobs, he
said.
     The World Bank plans to grant more than $50 million to Haiti in the
coming months, sources close to the World Bank in Washington told Reuters
on Monday.
     The U.S.-backed interim government has called on World Bank officials
to give Haiti the status of a post-conflict country, and the World Bank is
considering doing that.
     "If Haiti is classified a post-conflict country, it will have access
to grants instead of loans, but otherwise it will have to pay the arrears
before having access to new loans," a World Bank official told Reuters.
     "World Bank assistance to Haiti will be enough to cover the $45
million in accumulated arrears, plus $15 million in debt service to the
bank," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
     The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) will also pour about $30
million into the Haitian economy by year's end, Eric Pierre, the IADB's
principal adviser on Haiti and Argentina, told Reuters on Monday in a phone
interview from Washington.
     This amount includes $15 million to help balance the Haitian national
budget, he said.
     IADB has an envelope of $350 million available for Haiti, but the
money is expected to be disbursed gradually over the next three years,
officials said.
     Pierre said most of the prerequisites have already been met for the
disbursement of IADB funds to Haiti, but that Haiti's absorption capacity
and its government's slow pace seem to be the obstacle to rapid release of
the funds.
     "The funds are available, but our pace is conditioned by the
government's pace," an IADB official said.
     The European Commission has $27 million euros available for Haiti,
Marcel Van Opstal, chief of the European Commission in Haiti, said.
     Canada has granted $10.8 million to Haiti since February and the money
is being disbursed now. France also has promised to provide funds to help
relaunch Haiti's economy.