Anthony Jean-Baptiste’s list of reasons why entrepreneurs fail to do business in Haiti resonated with most people on June 19 during the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Consultative Conference on Rebuilding Haiti.

With a USAID employee taking notes on an easel marked “Constraints to Investment,” he cited: “The post office does not function so Haitians are dependent on DHL carrier to mail packages; prices at each port are subject to its employees’ whims; and there are too many secret deals.”

“With this new government, I would like to see these change,” Jean-Baptise said, returning to his seat, accompanied by “uh-hmms” and nods of agreement.

These are comments that USAID and the interim government’s officials were hoping to receive through the conference.

“We’re going to get it right in Haiti this time,” Adolfo Franco, USAID’s assistant administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, said to a roomful of Haitians at the Brooklyn Marriott. “One thing we didn’t do when we [made] that $850 million pledge to Haiti [10 years ago], what we didn’t do was consult with all of you.”

Franco said of the $160 million aid package approved by the U.S. government to assist Haiti, $35 million is earmarked to reinforce partnerships with the Diaspora. USAID has provided aid to needy countries worldwide for 40 years and said that it is Haiti’s largest single donor.

Recognizing that it failed in previous attempts at assisting Haitians, Franco told about 115 Haitians that the agency needed the Haitian Diaspora’s input on ways to rebuild Haiti. Two conferences like this have been held in Florida, since an interim government was installed in Haiti after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ouster Feb. 29.

Other organizations have held or plan to host similar brainstorming sessions. Besides USAID’s two conferences in Florida, the American Friends of Haiti Service organized a community dialogue on June 13 at Brooklyn College to discuss ways Haitians in the Diaspora could help Haiti. On June 25, Boston-based Lakou Association is scheduled to facilitate a debate on whether post-Aristide Haiti could be “a time of hope and progress” or a sign of backsliding democracy, during its three-day lecture series.

USAID’s New York conference, coordinated by the Pan-American Development Fund, gave participants time to voice their opinions and vent at the state of the country. U.S. residents who have interests or are considering investing in Haiti made up a significant portion of the participants. Representatives of hometown associations, health professionals, and staff of community-based organizations also attended.

Alix Baptiste, interim Haitian Secretary of State, presented a summary of steps the interim government has taken to reach out to the Diaspora.

While the half-day meeting was cathartic and optimistic for most, a few were critical of its motives.

“It’s good PR [public relations],” said Danny Borgella, co-owner of Radio Tropicale in Hempstead, N.Y. “The problem is deeper than that.”

A modicum of security must be established, participants said. Many ideas were volleyed on ways to improve the police force, from increasing salaries to demilitarizing residents.

“There must be political stability,” said Jean-Pierre Lambert, a Brooklyn real estate broker who participated in the job creation workshop. “As an investor, I’d rather invest in a country that has political stability, even if it is a dictatorship.”

Another point that won acclaim is decentralization, or “de-bidonvillization,” as one attendee labeled it. The Haitian-Americans said government must turn its eyes to the provinces and increase infrastructure that would allow travel to remote towns. Constructing factories, schools and other institutions in Haiti’s northern and central parts would create jobs for those living in Port-au-Prince’s ghettoes, they suggested.

Hometown associations and government officials must work to streamline the process of transferring goods and services, others said.

Programs to benefit farmers in areas such as the Artibonite Valley should be made available so that land sitting vacant could be used to produce oranges, rice, mangoes and crops that Haiti imports. Activities that would encourage youngsters to stay in their villages must also be developed, they said.

The south of Haiti, home to many talented artists, could be capitalized on for its paintings and crafts so that Haiti could perhaps become “an art mecca in the Caribbean.” Hoteliers could also be given incentives to expand their operations into car rental services. Guided tours for Haitians in the Diaspora interested in learning about the country might also be fruitful.

Creating a sort of Haitian-American fund to deliver and monitor financial assistance to Haiti was one idea greeted with applause.

Haitians send $800 million to relatives in Haiti through wire transfers. Many said they believe that money could be collected to fund projects.

Franco said a corps of Haitian professionals recognized by both governments could be developed, as a way to formalize this new relationship with the Haitian Diaspora. Both it and Haiti’s temporary government need their input and assistance in making lasting changes in the impoverished country.

“The fate of the country depends on Haitians abroad,” Baptiste said. “We’re only here for a few months. We’re just building a base so that the next constitutional government doesn’t have to start from scratch.”

Political upheaval has resulted in economic and social degradation that have left it with little to no functioning systems in the past 50 years.

When the interim government headed by Prime Minister Gérard Latortue took over in March, garbage piles lined the capital’s streets, electricity was sporadic and the HIV/AIDS rate was among the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

The Haitian Diaspora is the ideal partner since it has become knowledgeable in numerous fields, learned ways to achieve goals efficiently, and care about their homeland, panelists said.

“They need to understand that we need to be full partners,” said Fritz Simon, president of the Haitian Center for Conciliation and Democratic Education in Laurelton, N.Y.

A few others said they doubt that USAID would include Haitian-Americans in making decisions, after collecting its ideas.

“Too often, we are being used to give input to certain not-for-profit or [nongovernmental organizations] without being prospective partners in the implementation [process],” said Eddy Mesidore, a civil engineer and math professor. “Rebuilding Haiti has to come from the Haitian people.”

Franco and other officials sought to reassure those attendees by saying that it had heard such critiques in the past and was holding such conferences for that reason. They said this is the beginning of a process to create formal relationships.

Franco said though Haiti has been supported by government and humanitarian organizations’ funds for years, the private sector must take up the mantle because the latter’s success has longer effects on the masses than public assistance does.

“Ultimately, Haitians will have to be self-sufficient, meaning it has to become competitive,” Franco said. “We need to get the climate right for privatization. [People] in this room need the incentives to make the investments.”

Diane Joseph, an investor in Haiti whose husband represents Café Marabou and owns a record shop at the Port-au-Prince airport, said it’s time for Haitians to shake off negative outlooks and be more optimistic.

“It’s important to make a change,” Joseph, who plans to retire in Haiti with her husband, Yves Joseph of Tabou Combo. “We need to be more positive. [We] have to go back.”