Archive - Jan 2011 - News
Report Underlines Value of Private Investment in Securing Haiti’s Growth
News Releases
Jan 28, 2011
Report Underlines Value of Private Investment in Securing Haiti’s Growth
- World Economic Forum launches new report: Private Sector Development in Haiti: Opportunities for Investment, Job Creation and Growth
- Haiti can achieve sustainable growth with the support of international private sector
- Businesses should consider investment opportunities in Haiti
- More information on the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011: http://www.weforum.org
DAVOS-KLOSTERS, Switzerland– Haiti can achieve GDP growth of 6-8% over the next decade, if the right public policies are put in place, the national and international private sector become increasingly engaged, and support from the international community is sustained. This is the finding of the World Economic Forum’s Private Sector Development in Haiti: Opportunities for Investment, Job Creation and Growth, launched today in partnership with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“Despite the challenges, Haiti possesses the economic fundamentals to experience sustained growth. However it cannot achieve it alone. The private sector played an important role and innovative role in supporting humanitarian assistance to Haiti right after the earthquake and now it has an equally important role to play in helping Haiti achieve an accelerated economic trajectory,” says Robert Greenhill, Managing Director and Chief Business Officer, World Economic Forum. “The World Economic Forum hopes this joint paper will lead more companies to consider the investment opportunities presented in Haiti.”
The report outlines opportunities for businesses in Haiti and measures taken to encourage private sector engagement such as the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). SEZS are areas identified by the government as fast-track zones for commercial development, to be equipped with the infrastructure and regulatory framework to attract business. The World Bank and IFC are actively engaged with the Haitian government to improve its investment climate.
"The World Bank Group remains committed to helping Haiti catalyze private investment and improve the business environment. We are convinced that the private sector is essential for Haiti’s long-term development, to create jobs and help the country break its dependence on aid," said IFC’s CEO and Executive Vice President Lars Thunell. "This joint paper highlights the opportunities and challenges in improving Haiti's investment climate, in particular business regulation, access to basic infrastructure, logistic and financial services and access to skills. Multilateral banks, donors, the Government of Haiti and the private sector should develop the framework that will address these challenges."
The report outlines specific areas where the private sector can become involved, highlighting opportunities in construction and infrastructure development, agriculture, manufacturing, finance, tourism, and energy. A specific example from the manufacturing sector is the IDB’s recent announcement of its support along with the US government of a US$ 250 million deal to develop an industrial park in the north that is expected to generate as many as 65,000 jobs.
“Haiti has countless needs, but what it desperately requires to climb out of poverty is more jobs,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “Our goal is to persuade several companies from diverse industrial sectors to set up shop in the north, not only to boost employment and economic activity outside of Port-au-Prince, but also to change common risk perceptions about Haiti, so that many more investors may follow them.”
Finally, the report highlights examples of how international businesses are actively engaged in mutually beneficial partnerships designed to help grow Haiti’s economy. Under a public-private partnership structured by the IFC, Haiti’s government and central bank (Banque de la République d’Haiti –BRH) signed an agreement with Vietnam’s largest mobile telephone operator Viettel for $99 million. The agreement has led Viettel to commit significant investments, including the construction of Haiti’s first nation wide fibre optic backbone.
Case studies include:
- Haiti Hope: The Coca-Cola Company’s Haiti Hope project which is taking a holistic approach to realizing the full potential of mangos in Haiti’s recovery. Launched in September 2010, the project aims to double the income of 25,000 Haitian mango farmers over five years. It is a partnership between The Coca-Cola Company, the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), USAID, and TechnoServe, with the support of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and other international and local actors.
- Mobile Money: Mobile phone operators Voila and Digicel each have launched mobile banking services that maximize NGO resources, bolster reconstruction efforts, and provide Haiti’s “unbanked” population access to financial services. Though 85% of Haitian households have access to a cell phone, there are only two banks for every 100,000 people in the country. Mobile Money products will enable Haitians to transfer money domestically and internationally and complete commercial transactions wirelessly, including using their cell phone to purchase food and non-food items from a network of affiliated merchants throughout the country. Voila, Haiti-based Unibank, and the international aid agency Mercy Corps have joined together to launch a mobile banking service called T-Cash that offers beneficiaries of Mercy Corps’s cash programme the opportunity to receive and make payments using their Voila phones. Digicel and Canada’s Scotiabank have partnered to create Tcho Tcho Mobile, which offers mobile banking services that will enable users to perform cash withdrawals, deposits, and transfers through their mobile phone.
- Catastrophic Micro-insurance: The millions of small-scale traders who make up the informal sector in Haiti are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. To address this challenge, Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers, has formed a partnership with Caribbean Risk Managers Limited, Guy Carpenter Micro Risk Solutions, and Haiti’s largest microfinance institution, Fonkoze, to design a micro-insurance scheme for catastrophes in Haiti. The project will allow highly vulnerable Haitians to protect themselves from natural disasters at reasonable cost.
- YY Haiti: YY Haiti – an initiative of the Grameen Creative Lab, the Yunus Centre, and SAP AG – intends to create the infrastructure and provide the skills needed for social businesses in Haiti. YY Haiti is a fund investing in social businesses in Haiti and also providing appropriate business training. YY Haiti functions as a self-sustainable social business that is financed through the management fees earned from the social businesses in which it invests. Once the social businesses have returned their initial investment, the fund re-invests this money into new social businesses. Initial social business investments include a cocoa processing plant and an eco-hotel in Cap Haitien. Another 14 social businesses are currently in the due diligence process.
The report concludes by calling upon the international private sector to realize its potential to improve the situation by investing in Haiti stressing that despite clear challenges profitable investment opportunities exist today in Haiti, and increased private sector engagement today will create further investment opportunities in the future.
This report has benefited from a broad multistakeholder steering committee that features representatives from the Haitian and international private sector, international organizations, NGOs, and multiple governments demonstrating extensive support for Haiti’s potential for a prosperous future.
January 24th
Le MIF accorde une subvention de 4 millions d´USD pour la formation de jeunes à Haïti
Communiqués de presse
19 janv. 2011
Le MIF accorde une subvention de 4 millions d´USD pour la formation de jeunes à Haïti
Il s´agît d´un projet en collaboration avec des ONG, des fondations et des agences de développement
Le Fonds multilatéral d´investissement (MIF) de la Banque interaméricaine de développement (BID) a annoncé l´approbation d´une subvention de 4 millions de dollars US destinée à un programme visant la formation de quelques 9000 chômeurs et jeunes haïtiens non étudiants.
Le projet d´Académie de reconstruction pour jeunes d´Haïti (d´une durée de 4 ans), dont le coût estimé s´élèverait à 9,3 millions d´USD, sera dirigé par l´ONG haïtienne IDEJEN. Sont aussi des partenaires pour ce projet : la Fondation MasterCard, le Fonds Clinton-Bush pour Haïti, l´Agence de développement international des Etats-Unis (USAID), Education Development Center et Catholic Relief Services (Secours Catholique).
Le projet offrira à des jeunes des deux sexes d´entre 15 à 24 ans six mois de formation professionnelle, un tutorat, des cours de développement personnel et une formation intensive en alphabétisation et mathématiques. YouthBuild International, une ONG nord-américaine comptant avec une longue expérience dans la formation professionnelle de jeunes adultes chômeurs, assistera le projet lors de sa planification et exécution.
Les apprentis recevront des bourses en échange de leur participation à des travaux de reconstruction tels que réparation de maisons, écoles ou centres sanitaires. Afin de promouvoir les compétences d´une gestion financière responsable, le projet prévoit aussi d´offrir deux dollars pour chaque dollar économisé sur un compte épargne, compte qu´ils ne seront en mesure d´utiliser qu´une fois la formation finie.
Le projet établira par ailleurs des partenariats avec des gouvernements locaux, des entreprises et des organisations non gouvernementales pour le recrutement des conseillers ainsi que pour la recherche de stages et postes d´emploi pour les élèves. Une fois la formation achevée, IDEJEN effectuera un suivi des étudiants pendant six mois, leur fournissant par là même des conseils sur leur carrière professionnelle, une éducation complémentaire ou de l´aide pour lancer leur propre affaire.
De plus le projet compte financer l´amélioration des installations, des équipements et opérations des 12 centres communautaires où les cours auront lieu. Les manuels d´apprentissage et les outils de supervision/évaluation développés pour le projet seront mis en place par l´Institut national de formation professionnelle du Ministère haïtien d´éducation.
Le MIF, qui fait partie du Groupe de la Banque interaméricaine de développement, promeut la croissance économique et la réduction de la pauvreté à travers le secteur privé, se centrant notamment sur les petites et moyennes entreprises. Depuis le séisme de 2010 le MIF a approuvé plus de 16 millions de dollars US pour des projets d´appui pour Haïti visant la création d´emploi et de revenus.
From rags to fashion
Features and Web Stories
Jan 19, 2011
From rags to fashion
MIF helps Haitian non-profit lead small garment makers to higher value markets
Hans Garoute is obsessed with Vietnam. If that Asian nation, which until relatively recently had no textile industry to speak of, can fashion $400 suits, why is his own country, Haiti, despite its long tradition of sewing, focused on cheap T-shirts?
Garoute, who learnt all about the garment industry working as a buyer for a U.S. department store, and his long-time business partner, Jean Robert Lebrun, a former banker and clothing manufacturer, run INDEPCO (an acronym for Institut National pour le Développment et la Promotion de la Couture, French for National Institute for the Development and Promotion of Fashion).
Founded in 1992 as a non-profit, INDEPCO wears many hats. Fundamentally, it is a network of hundreds of ateliers, small workshops that produce clothing and other sewn goods for local and foreign clients. The organization pools orders, buys material in bulk, cuts fabric and distributes work among ateliers, helping them achieve economies of scale even though most have fewer than 10 sewing machines. With 600 members in 32 cities, INDEPCO also gives a voice to small businesses in Haiti’s garment sector, where large companies often have thousands of employees.
INDEPCO is also a training institute dedicated to upgrading the skills of atelier owners, supervisors and workers, giving them tools to climb up the textile value chain. That is what Vietnam did, Garoute assures, obtaining technical assistance from France to build a formidable garment industry.
However, to reach that stage, Haiti must overcome many obstacles. The 2010 earthquake destroyed entire factories, killed countless workers and crippled the country’s economy. One of INDEPCO’s buildings in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Delmas collapsed, crushing much of its equipment. A second building suffered major damage, and looters took whatever they could find among the rubble.
Back in business
INDEPCO managed to rescue some equipment, including several old but dependable industrial sewing machines. One week after the quake, they reopened for business in a shed belonging to a neighboring school furniture manufacturer. The first big order, for thousands of vests, came from Digicel, Haiti’s leading mobile communications provider. That request allowed dozens of INDEPCO members to get back to work.
Shortly after, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), which had supported INDEPCO in 1999 with a $370,000 grant for a three-year institutional strengthening program, approved $180,000 in emergency funds to help them replace lost equipment and rent a new plant.
“From past experiences with natural disasters, we knew that one the best things we could do was to help Haiti get people back to work as quickly as possible,” said MIF senior specialist Maria Teresa Villanueva, who coordinated the agency’s earthquake response.
To that end, the MIF approved over $1.8 million in emergency grants to local organizations and other partners with which it has worked over the years in Haiti, including some of the leading microfinance institutions.
The MIF also connected INDEPCO with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which in July made a $245,000 grant for working capital and to help them recondition and rewire their new 13,000 sq ft plant, where they were able to accommodate some members who had lost their workshops.
And in recognition for Garoute’s efforts on behalf of INDEPCO’s members since the earthquake, in January Digicel named him Haitian Entrepreneur of the Year.
Eyeing niches
From its new, more spacious facility close to Port-au-Prince’s airport, INDEPCO hopes to expand beyond the local market for government, corporate and school uniforms. With an eye on niche markets, it is training more members in beading and embroidering items from clothing to placemats, computer cases and handbags.
“Besides the big retail chains, the United States has a huge market of boutique stores that aren’t interested in carrying the same items as department stores. That’s the segment we have to go for,” says Garoute, who as a younger man imported Brazilian beachwear and lingerie to the United States following exactly that line of reasoning.
In his vision, Haiti must graduate from assembling low-cost items for foreign buyers to a stage where local companies can design, cut, sew, finish, pack and sell clothing, reaping a greater portion of product value.
To achieve that goal, INDEPCO seeks to build on Haiti’s sewing tradition. For as long as Garoute and Lebrun can remember, Haitians without prospects of becoming lawyers, doctors, teachers or engineers learned how to sew. Therefore, there are potentially hundreds of thousands of people with basic skills to work in the textile industry. The challenge is taking their abilities from an artisanal level to an industrial one.
INDEPCO assists its members in the process, training them in the techniques of mass production and quality control so they can participate in filling large volume orders punctually. “Even if they aren’t using industrial equipment, they are using industrial techniques to keep down costs and ensure standardized quality, which you can’t do if you make pieces one by one,” says Lebrun.
Garoute feels strongly that Haitians are not taking full advantage of their creative talent to produce fashion. “Couture is art, and we have always been good at art. But we have never translated it into fashion,” he says.
Strong motivations
A key aspect of INDEPCO’s mission is to build up members’ confidence. Garoute, who attended New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, travels around Haiti to hold assemblies with hundreds of participants. “You’re no different from Pierre Cardin or Calvin Klein,” he tells them. “They’re all tailors, just like you!”
Lebrun prefers a pull-yourselves-up-by-your-own-bootstraps message: INDEPCO will help its members if they help themselves. “There’s business in your own city, so go out there and get it, or someone else will take it,” he says.
The partners also have diverging opinions on the issue of imported second-hand clothing, which literally lines the streets of every Haitian town. “The true industry of this country has been left alone to fend against a flood of cheap clothes donated by well-meaning people,” Garoute rails. Lebrun, noting that thousands upon thousands of poor Haitians sell used garments for a living, says ateliers should ride the tide: “These are damaged goods, but you can repair or improve them, and sell them at your own stores.”
Looking to the future, INDEPCO aspires to become a federation with business hubs in every major Haitian city, providing services to clusters of ateliers around the country. “It would also help decentralize an industry that’s concentrated in Port-au-Prince,” says Lebrun. “If people in Gonaïves use uniforms, why do they have to be made in the capital?”
Garoute describes their dream in grander terms: “If we succeed, we could be starting a silent economic revolution, linking thousands of small businesses to major markets.”
Visit:
http://www.iadb.org/features-and-web-stories/2011-01/english/from-rags-to-fashion-9026.html
January 19th
Le MIF accorde une subvention de 4 millions d´USD pour la formation de jeunes à Haïti
Communiqués de presse
19 janv. 2011
Le MIF accorde une subvention de 4 millions d´USD pour la formation de jeunes à Haïti
Il s´agît d´un projet en collaboration avec des ONG, des fondations et des agences de développement
Le Fonds multilatéral d´investissement (MIF) de la Banque interaméricaine de développement (BID) a annoncé l´approbation d´une subvention de 4 millions de dollars US destinée à un programme visant la formation de quelques 9000 chômeurs et jeunes haïtiens non étudiants.
Le projet d´Académie de reconstruction pour jeunes d´Haïti (d´une durée de 4 ans), dont le coût estimé s´élèverait à 9,3 millions d´USD, sera dirigé par l´ONG haïtienne IDEJEN. Sont aussi des partenaires pour ce projet : la Fondation MasterCard, le Fonds Clinton-Bush pour Haïti, l´Agence de développement international des Etats-Unis (USAID), Education Development Center et Catholic Relief Services (Secours Catholique).
Le projet offrira à des jeunes des deux sexes d´entre 15 à 24 ans six mois de formation professionnelle, un tutorat, des cours de développement personnel et une formation intensive en alphabétisation et mathématiques. YouthBuild International, une ONG nord-américaine comptant avec une longue expérience dans la formation professionnelle de jeunes adultes chômeurs, assistera le projet lors de sa planification et exécution.
Les apprentis recevront des bourses en échange de leur participation à des travaux de reconstruction tels que réparation de maisons, écoles ou centres sanitaires. Afin de promouvoir les compétences d´une gestion financière responsable, le projet prévoit aussi d´offrir deux dollars pour chaque dollar économisé sur un compte épargne, compte qu´ils ne seront en mesure d´utiliser qu´une fois la formation finie.
Le projet établira par ailleurs des partenariats avec des gouvernements locaux, des entreprises et des organisations non gouvernementales pour le recrutement des conseillers ainsi que pour la recherche de stages et postes d´emploi pour les élèves. Une fois la formation achevée, IDEJEN effectuera un suivi des étudiants pendant six mois, leur fournissant par là même des conseils sur leur carrière professionnelle, une éducation complémentaire ou de l´aide pour lancer leur propre affaire.
De plus le projet compte financer l´amélioration des installations, des équipements et opérations des 12 centres communautaires où les cours auront lieu. Les manuels d´apprentissage et les outils de supervision/évaluation développés pour le projet seront mis en place par l´Institut national de formation professionnelle du Ministère haïtien d´éducation.
Le MIF, qui fait partie du Groupe de la Banque interaméricaine de développement, promeut la croissance économique et la réduction de la pauvreté à travers le secteur privé, se centrant notamment sur les petites et moyennes entreprises. Depuis le séisme de 2010 le MIF a approuvé plus de 16 millions de dollars US pour des projets d´appui pour Haïti visant la création d´emploi et de revenus.
http://www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?language=EN&id=9023&artid=9023
FOMIN and Fonkoze in CNN- Remittances to Haiti
Sharing a video (in Spanish) of a interview made by CNN in Spanish to our partners Fonkoze and the MIF specialist in remittances Natalia Bajuk.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/spanish/2011/01/14/ef.remesas.haiti.intv.cnn
Tweets
- @KombiteHaiti: Haiti Hope is looking up!