THE ARTIBONITE DEVELOPMENT CENTER IS MOVING TOWARDS ECONOMIC RECOVERY The Artibonite development center, created at the initiative of the AEA in partnership with local universities and organizations, seeks to propel a new development system based on solidarity, the primacy of intangible values and resources and the equitable sharing of the fruits of growth.
This morning, during the first debates organized on the UPAG platform and broadcast by Télé-Radio Provinciale, the greatest challenges of the Artibonite department were listed to revive and boost its economy severely affected by insecurity.
The problem of insecurity is not yet taken into account in its true dimensions by political and police leaders. This situation has led to a worsening decline in the production of goods and services in the department over the last three years. Agricultural entrepreneurs are in great difficulty. Irrigation is a headache, reveals the coordinator of Gonaïves Debout, Ing. Ravel Norgaisse. Agronomic research is lacking for a more profitable exploitation of resources, underlines Agr. Wilson Dazmar. As for agricultural entrepreneurs, they are abandoned to their own devices, notes Mr. Robert St Paul, president of the Federation of irrigated planters of the Gonaïves plain. He also underlines the urgency of putting order in the activities of NGOs that act autonomously.
The CEO of Télé-Radio Provinciale and president of the Citizen Initiative for Change (ICC), Ing. Raynal Orival, promoter of an intergenerational meeting of Gonaïviens in Montreal, identifies for his part the poor governance of municipalities as the main cause of the decline of livable territories.
The lack of skills and knowledge, characterizing this situation, can be filled by the opportunities offered by the Artibonite development pole through local universities, particularly UPAG, which wants to spearhead the rapprochement with the business community, argues Dr. Mane Jacques Dodat, rector of UPAG and first coordinator of the Artibonite Development Pole. He informed that this university will begin research on mangoes thanks to a fund provided by the Rectorate of the State University of Haiti.
If an equitable partnership is not established between the public and private sectors to increase, diversify and democratize investments and financing, development will remain a decoy, concludes the President of the AEA, Mr. Pierre Robert Auguste. He announced the upcoming holding of a summit on regional development with the hoped-for participation of the intellectual partners of the AEA, such as the Croissance Group and Quisqueya University. The development of the portfolios of the richest cannot be economic development, if not the aggravation of inequalities and social fractures dangerous for peace and security, he insisted.
Finally, Eng. Jean Robert Jean Noël provided the digital balm of the day in a well-articulated documentary on the department’s infrastructure needs, revealing a range of opportunities, particularly in the road and energy sectors.
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