Above: Haiti PM Laurent Lamothe and Agriculture Minister Thomas Jacques following their return from Venezuela

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe made a one-day visit to Venezuela on Monday for talks on Haiti’s participation in the proposed PetroCaribe Economic Zone.

Lamothe was joined by a group of Cabinet ministers including Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin and Agriculture Minister Thomas Jacques.

The talks focused both on the Economic Zone, which was announced at a PetroCaribe Summit earlier this year, and Haiti’s repayment of the PetroCaribe debt through agricultural products, according to a statement from Lamothe’s office.

The two sides reached a framework agreement on a list of agricultural products, the Prime Minister’s office said, and on the quality criteria the products must meet before being sold in the Venezuelan market.

Haitian officials will return to Venezuela on Oct. 18 to finalize the agreement and sign a contract for the “sequences of payment.”

During the trip, Lamothe also met with Gustavo Hernandez Economic and Social Bank of Venezuela, who reiterated Venezuela’s commitment to supporting a literacy programme in Haiti to the tune of about $10 million.

Hernandez also pledged to disburse $10 million out of a total of $33 million allocated to finance construction at the planned Hugo Chavez airport in Cap-Haitien.

The two sides also continued discussions on a planned 240-room hotel project in Ile a Vache. While in Venezuela, Villedrouin finalized several agreements on sustainable tourism projects, the government said.