[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 11, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S2889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LUGAR:
  S. 954. A bill to promote the strengthening of the Haitian private 
sector; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation that will 
lead to the establishment of the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund. The 
Haitian-American Enterprise Fund bill authorizes the Administration to 
allocate, from existing resources, such sums as required to create the 
Fund. The mission of the Fund will be to help empower Haiti's private 
sector to create jobs, which will contribute towards achieving long-
term social stability and economic growth.
  Last month, I asked six of the most distinguished directors of the 
former enterprise funds in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union 
to travel to Haiti to evaluate the current status of Haiti's private 
sector, the scope of U.S. Government efforts targeting sustainable job 
creation, and the role, if any, an enterprise fund might play there in 
promoting economic growth. Led by Kim Davis, a founder of the private 
equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners, each member of the Delegation 
has had a very successful private sector career and each traveled to 
Haiti, at his or her own expense, in order to provide the Congress an 
experienced perspective as to whether proven economic growth strategies 
they employed to strengthen other fragile countries might work in 
Haiti. They were also asked to describe what immediate actions they 
would recommend, if any, to jump-start Haiti's private sector, with a 
particular emphasis on entrepreneurship, and other initiatives that 
could assist Haiti in its necessary transition to a nation with a 
middle class and a market economy.
  In a recent letter to me, Haitian President-elect Michel Martelly 
noted he is fully supportive of efforts to create an enterprise fund 
for Haiti. Enterprise funds have historically filled important voids in 
the nascent capital markets of fragile economies. President-elect 
Martelly has indicated a keen interest in creating an enterprise fund 
in order to generate lending vehicles for mortgages and agricultural 
loans--as housing and agricultural production rank among his top 
priorities. There are many other voids in Haiti's economy that have 
been identified, which previous enterprise funds have effectively 
worked to address in other countries.
  The Delegation's report makes clear that enterprise funds are not 
silver bullets. However, at a time when we face significant domestic 
and global economic challenges, the enterprise fund model, if 
implemented effectively, provides a proven vehicle by which the U.S. 
Government can leverage the extensive intellectual and financial 
capital of the American business community in order to help address 
these challenges in underdeveloped economies such as that of Haiti. As 
an example, the Polish Fund received a USG grant of $240 million in 
1990 and used that to attract more than $2.3 billion to Poland over the 
next several years.
  Since Senator Leahy and I introduced legislation authorizing the 
creation of an enterprise fund for Haiti in April 2010, the 
Administration has requested that enterprise funds also be created for 
Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. Such keen interest in utilizing 
the enterprise fund model for advancing sustainable economic growth is 
welcomed. Empowering a group of U.S. citizens who understand democratic 
capitalism to help translate our foreign assistance strategies into 
practical actions will complement the important work performed by our 
capable diplomats and development experts.
  The May 14, 2011 inauguration of Mr. Martelly as President of Haiti 
provides an opportunity to start anew. Congress should aide the 
President-elect in this important effort by honoring his request for 
the creation of a Haitian-American Enterprise Fund. I ask for your 
support on passage of this bill.
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