Haiti's PM nominee sees no quick fixes

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ericq Pierre promised to back President Rene Preval's far-reaching plans to address soaring prices, increase national food production and create jobs.

Pierre, a senior official with the Inter-American Development Bank, said it will take decades for the country to build up the revenues and resources needed to address the poverty and high prices that sparked deadly riots in April.

"There is a lack of food but this is also a problem of cash -there is no money," Pierre said in his first interview with foreign media since the nomination. "The priorities in this country look very clear: We have to fight the high cost of living and try to create jobs. Jobs, jobs and jobs."

Preval nominated Pierre to be his country's second-in-command last month after the Senate fired Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis amid criticism that his government failed to show leadership and mismanaged the economy before violent protests that left seven people dead and destroyed hundreds of businesses.

Pierre said that if he is confirmed his government will pursue Preval's long-term goals of rebuilding agriculture, creating jobs and overhauling the justice system and schools.

He supports the president's 275-page poverty reduction framework prepared with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as a way to build a functioning economy in a country where the U.N. says more than half the people survive on less than US$1 (euro0.65) a day.

On Wednesday, a Senate committee approved Pierre's qualifications in a vote to allow debate on his nomination. The Chamber of Deputies must now hold a similar vote, and it remains unclear when the full parliament will vote on his confirmation.

Confirmation is not certain. Preval nominated Pierre for the same position in 1997, but the Chamber of Deputies rejected him 43-9 after he promised to push a U.S.-backed economic plan that would have laid off thousands of government workers and privatized state-run enterprises.

This time around, Pierre, 63, said with a laugh that he has a "50-50 chance" of confirmation.