Curacao Prime Minister Visits Haiti for Talks on Education, Green Energy

Above: Curacao PM Gerrit Schott (centre) and Haiti PM Laurent Lamothe (right) (Photo: OPM Haiti)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti recently hosted a three-day visit by Curacao Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte in the framework of cooperation in renewable energy and basic education.

Schotte, who was in Haiti for three days last week, shared his country’s experience in both areas.

He is the leader of Curacao’s Movementu Futuro Korsou, and is the first Prime Minister in the history of Curacao, which became autonomous in 2010.

The Curacao leader and Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe agreed to establish a commission in charge of energy security to support teams of Haiti’s electricity company in the search for effective alternative fuels.

The committee, which is slated to include both international donors and local partners, will have 60 days to develop ways in which Haiti’s utility can improve the quality of its services, make proposals adapted to the context of the production, sale and transportation of electricity and establish a working agenda with various stakeholders in the sector.

Lamothe said he expected the commission’s report to expedite the implementation of his government’s energy policy.

The commission will also participate in an energy summit in Curacao July 20.

The two sides additionally discussed Haiti’s government’s free and compulsory universal education initiative, which is similar to that offered in Curacao.

Lamothe and Schotte expressed “satisfaction” with the cooperation between the two countries, according to a statement from the National Palace.