economy and employment, Estimé attached the utmost importance to a modern and fair labour policy. The Estimé government created the Ministry and the Labour Office in 1946. The increase in the minimum wage level (despite the reluctance of the commercial sector) and the promulgation of the first Labour Code in 1947 are among the notable advances in workers’ rights, alongside the support to create trade unions (law of July 17,, 1947) regulating the functioning of trade union associations. d) Public Works Estimé showed his desire to provide the country with the basic infrastructure necessary for its economic development as well as launching a policy of major public works, stimulating job creation: the construction of a new town at the border, Belladère, as a symbol of development facing the Dominican Republic; the construction and repair of roads, bridges (including the suspension bridge of the Grand ’Anse), markets, and drinking water fountains; public buildings; development of provincial towns; and town planning work undertaken in the capital to prepare for the International Exhibition to commemorate the bicentenary of the founding of Port-au-Prince. The lighting of towns became widespread: the Croix-des-Bouquets power plant was inaugurated in 1948, followed by those of Belladère, Port-de-Paix, Jérémie and other cities. All the achievements of the government were financed by national resources. e) Bicentenary of the Founding of Port-au-Prince (1749–1949): the International Exhibition of December 1949 The law of July 14, 1948 stipulated that it was necessary for the country to greatly commemorate the bicentenary of the founding of Port-au-Prince in 1949, and to this end that "it was necessary to ensure the execution of the project conceived by the Head of the Executive Power to organise an International Exhibition to be inaugurated in Port-au-Prince in December 1949’. This law specified ‘that from a touristic, agricultural and industrial point of view, the execution of this project (would) be entirely favourable to the country’. This International Exhibition was to promote the rebirth and strengthening of ties between peoples and to stimulate the resumption and development of economic relations between countries, especially since it would be located in ‘a place in America considered as one of the most important crossroads on the major maritime and air routes on the Atlantic’. The International Exhibition was to have an area of 30 hectares and cover most of the capital’s waterfront by cleaning up this swampy and slum-occupied part of the coast (les