Business & Finance

The world of foreign relations is tricky to navigate. They are often outcomes of differences of opinions, cultural and religious barriers and economic and military interests that are at odds. However, sometimes, the people of two countries form an alliance that is mutually beneficial, as we found in a bilateral cooperation agreement, but without any primary involvement of their governments. Recently, as per news report dated Thursday, October 1, 2015, in an interview with Fox News Latino, Rafael Blanco Canto, the president of the D.R.'s National Council of the Private Enterprise has said that there is a $2 billion investment plan under discussion among the private investors of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Four areas of investments have been identified along the 250-mile-long border between the two countries and it would create thousands of factory and agricultural jobs and develop the tourism infrastructure in both the countries on one island.

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On November 17, President Martelly was present at the first major construction in the historic district of Port-au-Prince to inaugurate the Convention and Documentation Centre of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) located at the corner of Paved streets and Quai. It also gave him an opportunity to pay tribute to a monument 'Memorial Victory', dedicated to the 14 employees of the bank who died in the 2010 earthquake. The monument is the last work of the great Haitian sculptor Ludovic Booz. The building has been built at a cost of $14.5 million as per earthquake and para cyclonic norms. It consists an administrative area, a multi-purpose exhibition space (900 square meters), two control rooms for simultaneous translation, five office space on the rue Pavée, four meeting rooms, a lobby (380 square meters), a foyer (300 square meters), one documentation area, a restaurant with capacity for 125 people and an artists' dressing room for musical and theatrical performance. The Head of the State invited other institutions to follow the example of the BRH. The center has been built to facilitate the revival of the historical center of Port-au-Prince.

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KONEKTE or "to connect" in Haitian Creole, is the product of a strategic partnership between the USAID and the Haiti government for the creation of a more stable and viable Haiti.

KONesans E Konpetans TEknik (KONEKTE) programs, launched in November 2012, are designed to put the right man to the critical jobs so that the development program under the Government of Haiti and USAID can be implemented and carried on effectively. The theme of the Phase II of the KONEKTE program "reinforcement of the service providers like ministries and organizations for offering better services to the population" was announced by the Office of Management and Human Resources (OMRH) on September 22, 2015, at the Hotel Karibe Convention Center, Room Cattleya. The program will include institutional strengthening, fair recruitment process, transparency and competitiveness in policy development and standardize human resource management tools.

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Haitian Economy Primed for Business Investments. During a seminar themed "Doing Business with Haiti", American Chamber of Commerce of Trinidad and Tobago (AMCHAM) CEO, Nirad Tewarie, spoke about the opportunity TT has to pour money into an increasingly diversified Haitian economy. Haiti's developing economy has blossomed under Martelly's government because of the strengthening of its infrastructure, more productivity, and a growth in resources for producing goods and services.

Tewarie urged AMCHAM to jump into the Haitian market ". . . while it is still early to . . . take advantage of . . . potentially exponential growth in the years ahead" Already Korean and American companies are exploiting the burgeoning Haitian economy he added.

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After a long gap of 60 years, Haiti has exported a shipment of bananas to Europe under a three year contract valuing €93 million, each year. In contrast, Haiti's next neighbor Dominican Republic, every year sends up to 350,000 MT of premium organic fruits, overseas.

Although these two nations share similar soil, same climate along with logistics and trade characteristics, Haiti's export of agricultural products were almost negligible. 'Agritrans SA' is a $27 million ambitious agricultural project attempting to establish a banana business in Haiti with modern agricultural equipment such as irrigation pumps, an artificial lake with 700.000 gallon capacity, tractors, etc.

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As per Legatum Prosperity Index, 2015 published on November 2, 2015, Haiti ranks 140th out of 142 countries in the world. The index is an annual ranking of 142 countries which includes both objective and subjective data, based on eight distinct categories: Economy; Entrepreneurship & Opportunity; Education; Governance; Personal Freedom; Health; Safety & Security; and Social Capital.

The index is important because it is the only global index that measures national prosperity based on both wealth and wellbeing representing more than 96% of the world's population and 99% of the world's GDP. Two countries trailing Haiti are Afghanistan and Central African Republic. Last year, Haiti ranked 135th in the index. Haiti's recent sub-index performance rankings are as follows: education (115th), safety & security (123rd), social capital (125th), economy (136th), personal freedom (138th), governance (139th), entrepreneurship and opportunity (139th) and health (140th). The Dominican Republic ranks 76th in the current index, 4 places down compared to the previous year with best and worst rankings in the 'social capital (57th)' and 'security level (92nd)'.

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The Technical Commission of Borders (CTF) created by decree on last August had announced after its creation that it would create a platform of transshipment in Malpasse area in order to resolve conflicts of Dominican and Haitian transporters at the border and secure better and organized transshipment of goods on the frontier area. Recently, on September 20, Max Antoine, the Executive Director of the CTF has announced that such a dream with enough employment potentials would soon become a reality.

A space for the infrastructure has been identified in the Fonds Bayard area of Malpasse where "Antilles Construction" will invest over $4 million for the infrastructure development. The transshipment platform will be run under the management of Customs and the Union of Haitian carriers. We may assume that this announcement would please Blas Peralta, the President of the Dominican Federation of Transport (FENATRADO).

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Recently, on Tuesday, September 21, Alberto Navarro, the head of the EU delegation in the Dominican Republic, has warned that the Haitian import ban on some essential Dominican goods, likes of wheat, corn, bread, etc. would make them dearer by about 40% and the most disadvantages in Haiti will have no option but to pay that high price to buy them.

The ban, a consequence to the mass deportation of Haitians by the Dominican authority, would be effective from October 1. The Haitian government has imposed an import restriction on 23 items crossing the land border, but they can enter by boat or plane on payment of taxes to the capital of Port-au-Prince or at the northern coastal town of Cap Haitien. Last year Haiti has imported around $500 million worth of food items from the Dominican Republic and the figure is 6% of total Dominican export.

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Ron Moore (72), a traveling engineer and a resident of Forest Lake, Indianapolis, following his graduation from Purdue University started his international travel career in the Dominican Republic. After working there with Peace Corp for three years, he went to Bolivia on a USAID program for two years. The next twenty years he had worked with Johnson Filtration Systems as the Director of Latin American operations, but worked worldwide with designing and installing sanitary systems for his company and had met the natives of some 60 countries. In 1995, he started his own White Bear Lake-based sewer and water business 'Hidrocare Inc.' Since 2008, he has made over 15 trips to Haiti and started learning Creole.

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Miami's Panther Coffee is about to expand its operation in South Florida in a new 4,000-square-foot location in Miami's Little Haiti where the majority of the company's roasting will be done since January, 1, next year. The new location at 59th Street and Northwest Second Avenue will serve as the company's world headquarters, and it will triple the company's present weekly output of thousands pounds of roasted coffee beans, which is marketed through about 135 worldwide wholesalers, mostly (about 85%) based in South Florida.

Presently, the company has been operating in a 1250 square foot space at its flagship location in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood where it does all the roasting works in a 12-foot-by-12-foot space, curated from small farms such as Grupo las Cuchillas in Nicaragua. Panther Coffee in Wynwood has a small interior, often very crowded, might take a few extra minutes to get your coffee-- but the coffee is fantastic, and so are their bakery treats. The cold brew would be some of the best that you would ever have.

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