{"id":96502,"date":"2017-08-07T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T11:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=96502"},"modified":"2017-08-14T11:02:44","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T10:02:44","slug":"china-extends-her-silk-road-to-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/08\/china-extends-her-silk-road-to-haiti\/","title":{"rendered":"China Extends Her Silk Road to Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

China plans to build markets in Port-au-Prince under the new initiative.
Georgianne Nienaber<\/p><\/div>\n

4 Aug 2017 – <\/em>China plans to invest $30 billion in Haiti\u2019s infrastructure according to the Haitian Press Agency<\/em> (AHP<\/a>). This week the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Youri Chevry, hosted the signing of an agreement between the Haitian company Bati Ayiti (Build Haiti), headed by former Senator Amos Andr\u00e9, and the Southwest Municipal Engineering and Design Research Institute of China<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agreement includes the construction of a 600 megawatt power plant to electrify Port-au-Prince, the construction of a new City Hall, markets, thousands of apartments, and eventually a railway from Port-au-Prince to the countryside. The center of the discussion was \u201cthe reconstruction of the main building of the Town Hall and the construction of several public contracts on the territory of the commune of Port-au-Prince,\u201d according to LoopHaiti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

20,000 workers will begin work before the end of 2017, backed by an initial infusion of $5 billion. The Chinese Government has a deadline of September 30, 2017 to unblock the funds. In the meantime, Bati Ayiti, the City of Port-au-Prince and their partners continue to work on the recruitment of staff.<\/p>\n

Last May, China\u2019s president Xi Jinping hosted the first Belt and Road Forum<\/a> (\u201cOne Belt, One Road\u201d) in Beijing, offering hundreds of billions of dollars to over 100 interested countries for infrastructure projects. Haiti stands to be a beneficiary of the ambitious Chinese initiative, which is modeled on the ancient \u201cSilk Road.\u201d 2,000 years ago China opened up routes of trade that linked the civilizations of Asia, Europe and Africa.<\/p>\n

China now stands to have influence in the Caribbean corridor stretching from Cuba to Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Some analysts have compared the One Belt One Road enterprise to the Marshall Plan. After World War II, the United States was such a strong manufacturing entity that it was forced to seek markets for its industrial products. The Marshall Plan required that aid to Europe involve a quid pro quo of U.S. investment and imports.<\/p>\n

Today, China has an excess amount of industrial capacity. China is exceptionally skilled at infrastructure. Foreign investment provides an outlet for exports of labor and resources.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e26NCpEqAoc<\/p>\n

\u201cThis accord may finally break the grip that the eternal exploiters of Haiti had for decades on the poor people of Haiti while they greatly benefited from favors and monopolies from corrupt governments,\u201d says Bernard Sansaricq, the former Senate President of Haiti, in an email.<\/p>\n

Is it also possible that the Chinese initiative is less about altruistic globalization and more about finding markets for its industrial over capacity? Is China trying to lure Haiti into its geo-political orbit? Both motives may work together for the benefit of Haiti.<\/p>\n

It worked<\/a> in Rwanda. Figures from the Rwanda Development Board indicate that Rwanda registered 45 Chinese investments from 2010 \u2013 2016.<\/p>\n

The change in Kigali is stunning over the past 15 years. I have witnessed this transformation myself in multiple visits since 2004. The streets are clean and not a plastic bag in sight. A woman can walk the streets alone at midnight and feel as safe as on a moonlight stroll on Sanibel Island\u2019s beaches.<\/p>\n

Chinese engineers built the country\u2019s tallest building, Kigali City Tower, \u201ca gleaming 20-story glass skyscraper; the building that houses Rwanda\u2019s foreign ministry; various hotels, schools, and hospitals; and 80% of the country\u2019s roads,\u201d according to an article<\/a> in Quartz Africa<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are still problems, of course, and outside development offers no guarantee of utopia. Competition for jobs remains fierce.<\/p>\n

As Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership <\/a>network suggests, China can capitalize on the failures of the Clinton Foundation failures in Haiti.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Trump is too tied up with the Deep State and China leaves a bit of clean water, electricity, and road infrastructure- so be it. But anything done under the illegitimate (left-over Clinton\/Bush establishment) government is worrisome. They put Jovenel (the current President) in to keep the status as is \u2014 the people too hungry, sick, and weak to fight back,\u201d Danto says.<\/p>\n

See also this article on the Haiti Mafioso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A power plant to light up the roads certainly won\u2019t be welcomed by the dark forces of the criminal mafias.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have preferred to champion a U.S. government initiative, but it (the China investment) is what it is,\u201d says Danto.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

Georgianne Nienaber: contributor writer and author with special interest in international issues. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 huffingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 Aug 2017 – China plans to invest $30 billion in Haiti\u2019s infrastructure according to the Haitian Press Agency. The agreement includes the construction of a 600 megawatt power plant to electrify Port-au-Prince, the construction of a new City Hall, markets, thousands of apartments, and eventually a railway from Port-au-Prince to the countryside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,180,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-brics","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}