PORT-AU-PRINCE -- As Haitian and foreign officials laid the first stone of a new 605-acre industrial park on a bulldozed bean field this week, they each heralded it as not just a foundation for job creation but a new model for economic development.

“This is the change we need. This is the development we need,” a dressed-down President Michel Martelly, told the crowd gathered in Caracol, a rural community in northern Haiti that will soon be transformed by 65,000 new jobs in apparel, furniture and paint-making that the internationally financed but state-owned park is expected to attract.

“Haiti says ‘Thank you’ to everyone who helped; those who brought us food or water. But the Haitian people want this to change,” said Martelly, who has promised to create 500,000 jobs in three years. “Today, this is the kind of investment model we need from Haiti’s friends. With this kind of model, you allow Haitians to regain their pride.”

The call was issued on the eve of an investment forum in Port-au-Prince attracting 1,000 people — nearly half of them, potential investors from 29 countries. Sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank, it comes amid a building consensus that nearly two years after the devastating January 2010 earthquake and decades of economic stagnation, Haiti must finally break the cycle of handouts.

The government has promised to support several investor-friendly policies, including reducing business registration from 150 days to 10 and construction permits from three years to 60 days; reinforce a one-stop investment center designed to support business start-ups and launch a new InvestinHaiti website. It will also form a joint task force with the IDB to follow up on the conference.

“We want to be visible at all of the conferences,” said Karl Jean-Louis, executive director of Haiti’s Presidential Investment Advisory Council.

Haiti backers say if a fraction of the promises are kept, the nation would finally be able to get rid of its image as one of the worst places in the region to do business based on the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation annual rankings.

“What business people are looking for is the ability to control the risks that they face,” said Ann Pence, a consultant with 30 years experience in the development world who was making the rounds on behalf of construction clients hoping to invest. “They want to be in these markets. But to do so, they do have to have a regulatory environment, a tax environment (and) respect for contracts.”

Haiti ranks 141 out of 142 countries in competitiveness, said local economist Kesner Pharel. The country can tap its vast potential by making measureable improvements, he noted Wednesday as the conference ended.

“Among the main priorities of the...administration, one can say, is the establishment of policies in the energy, telecommunications sectors in order to make the Haitian economy more productive and competitive,” he said. “We don’t have to go from 141 to 50 right away.”

William Hancock, the CEO of a housing company, agreed.

“Everyone has touched on all of the major issues that need to be resolved. Now, those issues need to be resolved: finance, shipping and port, and the road system, which is improving.”