GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — The President of Haiti Jovenel Moïse has called for innovation and investment in energy production and distribution in his country.
Moïse, who participated in the opening session of the 2017 edition of the CARICOM Energy Month (CEM) earlier this week , declared that he intends to “make universal and reliable access to energy a key factor of economic development” in the French speaking Caribbean nation.
During the event that launched the CEM and brought together many of the actors in Haiti’s energy sector, Moise also highlighted, Haiti’s potential to utilise and develop clean, renewable sources of energy.
“But it’s not only a question of producing energy and making it accessible to people” said the president. “We also have to collect revenue. Energy cannot be free; everywhere in the world one has to pay for energy. This has to be properly reflected in our energy policy”.
The Haitian president noted that the public and private sectors both had a role to play in the development of the sector.
Regional cooperation was another recurrent theme in the deliberations with Dr René Jean-Jumeau, the Executive Director of the Haitian Energy Institute and overall facilitator of the Symposium, noting that there had been major advances in the energy sector in the Caribbean in recent years. He added that there was much that Haiti can benefit from increased cooperation with the rest of Caribbean Community (CARICOM).