Challenge for Haiti to get long-term int'l aid: ECLAC

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The challenge facing quake-ravaged Haiti is to gain long-term relief from the international community to realize its reconstruction, an official with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Thursday.

The world has shown solidarity with Haiti during the quake relief process, as many countries including China have sent emergency aid to the Caribbean country, ECLAC chief of the Disasters Evaluation Unit, Ricardo Zapata, told Xinhua in an interview.

A big challenge of the reconstruction work is to rebuild the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Zapata said.

Another challenge is to reestablish Haiti's national institutions to make the country self sustainable and not dependent of foreign aid, he said.

The international community should go on with its cooperation in aiding Haiti's reconstruction process, he added.

It is also necessary to continue the efforts to bring Haiti, one of the poorest Latin American countries, out of poverty, he said.

Zapata said Haiti, even before the quake, only has limited risk-reducing capacity, adding ECLAC emphasized the importance of reinforcing and improving Haiti's risk management system.