WASHINGTON, Sep 8 (IPS) – Haitian Prime Minister Smarck Michel says his government is sticking to its economic reform programme, including the privatisation of nine state-owned companies.

Speaking amid consultations with senior U.S. and international financial officials here, Michel admitted there was ‘’some turmoil’’ within Haitian society about privatisation, but he denied that the government itself is split on the issue.

‘’We are going ahead,’’ he said, adding that the timetable for selling off the companies may have to be delayed to give more time to the government to explain the programme to the people.

Michel, who took power after the U.S.-led multinational military intervention in Haiti almost exactly one year ago, said U.N. forces should be able to leave the Caribbean nation on schedule next February.

‘’For the moment, I believe it is quite feasible,’’ he told reporters here, adding that 4,000 newly-trained Haitian police should be on the job by then. He said any extension of the U.N. mandate in Haiti will have to be negotiated with the government that is elected when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide steps down.

He also downplayed the effect of an election boycott by some parties protesting what they charge was fraud in parliamentary elections earlier this year. Most of the boycotting parties’ candidates intend to run in the second, run-off election Sep 17, due to grassroots pressure to participate, he said.

Aristide’s party, Lavalas, is expected to emerge with large majorities in both houses of parliament when the run-off is completed. ‘’There were problems (with the elections), Michel conceded. ‘’But most everybody agreed there was no fraud.’’

Michel’s main concern here is economic. He described his talks with World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials here this week as ‘’crucial to the success of our programme.’’

At stake, according to Michel, is about 170 million dollars in ‘’structural adjustment’’ loans which have been prepared by the Bank, the IMF, the Intern-American Development Bank (IDB), and the European Union.

To unlock those funds — part of a five-year, 1.2-billion- dollar aid programme pledged by donors for Haiti in August, 1994, just before the Aristide’s restoration — the IMF and the government will have to agree on certain conditions and targets designed to stabilise the economy, reduce government spending, and increase tax revenue.

Formal talks between the IMF, which will provide between 20 and 30 million dollars once an agreement is reached, begin Sep 18 in Port-au-Prince.

‘’I don’t think there’s any point of difference between the government’s attitude and the international financial institutions’’ he said. But, on privatisation, he added, ‘’we may have to negotiate the time line, because it has to be clearly understood by the population.’’

Most Haitians, he said, were ‘’against the idea of privatisation.’’ For many, ‘’the word is a demon.’’ Indeed, the government has preferred to use the phrase ‘’democratisation of assets’’ to describe its intentions.

‘’How can the population be against privatisation of the telephone company when only five percent of the population has a telephone. How can the population be against the privatisation of electricity when only seven percent know what it is?’’ he asked.

At stake are nine state-owned companies, including the country’s flour mill, a cement factory, its air and seaports, as well telephone exchanges and electricity.

Last month, the government invited investors to bid on the cement factory. flour mill, and the ports. The move spurred popular protests by labour unions and others who oppose the plan as a betrayal of national sovereignty.

But the plan’s advocates say that, in addition to depleting the government’s coffers, these enterprises have historically benefited the wealthy elite and their military guardians, and that it makes no economic sense for the state to hold onto them.

‘’There’s some demagoguery about this in the country,’’ noted one U.S. adviser to the government. ‘’Everyone agrees that the flour mill and the cement plant represent to total drain on the state’s resources while employing only about 100 people between them.’’

Privatisation is a key feature of the international donors’ plans which were agreed to by Aristide at the August 1994 donors’ meeting in Paris.

Michel said Haiti is making good progress in restarting the economy. ‘’We are out of the emergency session,’’ he said, ‘’and we are entering the structural adjustment session.’’

But he noted that only 10,000 jobs have been created in the assembly industry — Haiti’s most important sector — since the U.N. intervention. The country lost 50,000 assembly jobs during the three years of military rule which interrupted Aristide’s democratically elected reign.

Michel said foreign investors had adopted a ‘’wait and see’’ attitude until after presidential election in December, although, he added, the local private sector ‘’has started to invest.’’

Another major concern for Michel is the future of U.S. aid, to which the administration of President Bill Clinton remains committed. But the amount of aid is threatened by moves in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress to slash Washington’s total aid budget.

Some 115 million which the administration is planning to spend in Haiti next year, may be cut by as much as 40 percent if the Republicans get their way and even more if, as threatened, food aid is also cut.

That could leave a big hole in the government’s budget of about 333 million dollars. In addition, the ultra-right Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, Jesse Helms, has hinted he may try to attach political conditions to aid to Haiti.(END/IPS/JL/95)

Origin: Washington/HAITI/ ----

[c] 1995, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved

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