PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Former President Bill Clinton welcomed a trade mission in Haiti Thursday, committing his and the Inter-American Development Bank staff to personally follow up with each investor interested in creating jobs but may need help finalizing a real deal.

``This is really important. You came here to see what was going on,'' Clinton said to some 600 business and civic leaders, including 200 foreign investors, at the Karibe Hotel in Petionville. ``And to see if this Haiti thing was real, or just PR. This is real.''

Clinton told investors that the more specific they are about their problems or challenges, the quicker he and his staff can help cut through government red tape, or finalize the deal.

The promise from Clinton came at the end of a lengthy speech in which he commended the participation of Haiti's Latin American neighbors for their interest in investing here, thanked the Haitian government for helping its diaspora in the United States, Canada and France to participate in improving the lives of the poor, and discussed the need for energy alternatives.

He also announced that some investors had already agreed to create jobs, including an Irish company that plans to open a calling center in Port-au-Prince, Miami-based Royal Caribbean's plans to train Haitians and a $50 million industrial park to be partly funded by billionaire George Soros' Open Society Institute. The investment has the potential to create 25,000 new jobs in the garment industry.

``Your political risk in Haiti is lower than it has ever been in my lifetime,'' Clinton said.

Clinton, who will visit Labadee and the San Souci ruins Friday, also plugged Haiti's tourism potential.

``There is enormous potential here,'' he said. ``We want to work on that. We need infrastructure.''

He committed himself to doing more to show investors the opportunities in the country, saying ``we're working hard to identify the barriers to participation.''