President of Haiti speaks in South Florida

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Michel Martelly, the president of Haiti, made a South Florida stop to make an important speech on the state of his country.

Martelly came to Miami to talk about progress in different areas that his administration has been making since he took office shortly after the 2010 earthquake.

He will be speaking about education and construction. More than 300,000 people in Haiti remain in tents, but more than a million have been given homes after the earthquake, according to Martelly.

Martelly said the big push now is to bring in international investors, Haitian-American investors and tourism. "We think it's very important," said Martelly, "that we do change the image that in the past Haiti has been known as a country of disaster. Many have said that things are slow to happen, and indeed, things will be slow because it takes time to build, and it is easy to destroy."

Martelly did acknowledge that it's going to take a long time for people to see any progress in Haiti. He said what he is trying to do is change the country from within with foreign investors, to get Haitians to understand that change will happen, but it will take some time.

President Martelly will speak for a crowd in North Miami Beach Monday night.

(Copyright 2012 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)