DR government promotes construction of a mega economic zone in Haiti
It would cost close to US$200 million and generate 10,000 jobs
SANTO DOMINGO. After the earthquake of 20 January 2010 in Haiti and the inauguration of President Michel Martelly, street protests have created an unstable atmosphere.
The Dominican government, through the Center of Investment and Exports of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), is awaiting for there to be more security and for the end of the analysis of the results of a feasibility study for the development of a broad-based international economic free zone in the central city of Chambrun, some 19 kilometers from Port-au-Prince.
The mega-project is called the Quisqueya Development Corporation, for the original name of the island. It would be composed of an industrial polygon, agro-industrial projects, telecommunication companies, golf courses and hotels, along with a space for housing, commerce and schools among other things.
Its cost, estimated by the CEI-RD director, Eddy Martinez, would be between US$100 and US$200 million. Besides the Haitians, there would also be investors from Taiwan and the United States. "We hope that 10,000 jobs would be created in the first five years," estimated Martinez.
The description of the bi-national project drawn up by the agency shows that the WIN Group, one of the principle business conglomerates of Haiti, has set aside a 461 hectare piece of land outside of Port-au-Prince for the construction of the first stage of the ambitious project that should get underway or begun by 2013, if the social conditions permit it, according to Martinez.
In their 2010 yearly report, the CEI-RD also cited the contracting of the consulting firms of VHM, SA and KOIOS Associates, LLC for working up an architectural master-plan for the construction of the principle office buildings and a financial and economic assessment.
Why the interest?
"The primary interest of both countries is that we will be able to grow. It is not in our interests to have a state whose prosperity is very unequal to that of Haiti, which then what it does, we can say, is promote in this case the migration or the emigration of Haitians towards here. We are interested in a greater level of prosperity and generation of wealth in Haiti which offers opportunities to the Haitians in their own country. And this, in the end, will be convenient for us also, we will sell more products, we will sell more services, we will invest more, the same as the Haitian side," said Martinez.
The Diagnostic Study for Creating Incentives for the Commercial Exchange with the Republic of Haiti, elaborated by the Dominican government by DASA Economic and Financial Consultants in December 2010, refers to the fact that at the present juncture of the Haitian reconstruction after the destruction of the 7.0 earthquake two years ago, "it would be interesting to evaluate the establishing of safe areas for setting up industries and companies in Haitian territory."
"From the practical point of view, the issue of investment safety is one of the most discouraging elements for the investor," says the analysis. "Each job in Haiti has an impact on the Dominican Republic, because generally, part of the Haitian income is spent to buy products from the Dominican Republic which is the second most important supplier to Haiti, and for this reason we have made so much effort for the investments to keep coming," explained the CEI-RD director Martinez.
He has in view the expansion in this project of "call centers" as has been achieved in the Dominican Republic, above all for the English and French markets.
One sector that has shown the inconvenience of the low productive development of Haiti is the Dominican tourist sector. The National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Asonahores) has established its opposition to both countries promoting themselves as a single tourist destination, because they feel that Haiti causes a negative feeling as a country brand. Instead, they prefer supporting collaboration and consultations.
It will not be competition
For the CEI-RD, a project of this type would not place Haiti as competition for the Dominican Republic. The director sees this as more of a way to help the development and provide collaboration of the two nations. "It is not good for us to have a State of such unequal prosperity with regard to Haiti, because this then promotes the emigration of Haitians... This in the end, will be good for us also, we will sell more products, we will sell more services, we will make more investments," concluded Martinez.
The DR is the economic asylum of more than two million Haitians
Haitians immigrate to the Dominican Republic in search of economic betterment, jobs or to go forward in their studies. It is estimated that more than two million live in the country and according to the General Directorate for Migration, as many as a million are here in an irregular situation.
The Secretary of State for Higher Education in Haiti, Jean Claude Francois, counts 15,000 students from his nation in Dominican universities. The construction sector prefers the cheap labor of Haitian nationals, and this is the chief occupation for them in this country.
Due to the informality with which many of them are employed, there is little contribution of taxes to the state. Nonetheless the Ministry of Public Health estimates a yearly investment of some RD$400,000,000 in health attentions provided in different services to Haitians.
The Chancellor Carlos Morales has said that the Dominican Republic cannot support "the human and economic costs of the serious situation" of Haiti, which are reflected to a large measure in their migration.
In order to have a greater control, not only of the Haitians, but rather of all the foreigners in general, in October of last year, the Regulation for the Application of the Migration Law 285-04 went into effect, and this included providing an identity card, with fingerprints and signature to the foreign workers contracted by national businesses, and provided by the National Directorate of Migration.
Other investments of the DR in Haiti to create jobs and development
The private investments of Dominican capital in Haiti create thousands of jobs in the poorest state in the Americas. With more than 12 years in the country, the construction firm of Mera, Muñoz & Fondeur has some 300 employees, the majority Haitian. Among their projects is the rebuilding and pavement of 43 kilometers of the Jacmel highway, in a consortium, and a sub-contract for the repairs and reconditioning of a section of the National Highway.
The free zone Industrial Development Company (Codevi), which was set up in 2001 in the frontier city of Ouanaminthe (Juana Mendez), creates 6.500 direct jobs and 32,000 indirect jobs.
At the public level, in May 2011 the governments inaugurated the bi-national project called Green Frontier, which was begun by the Ministries of the Environment of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, together with the Secretary of Foreign Relations of the Kingdom of Norway, in D'Osmond, Ouanaminthe
The program includes the creation of jobs with reforestation plans, the establishment of small infrastructures for irrigation as well as the improvement of housing conditions.
Although the government has not quantified how much or how many, it is expected that the recently inaugurated Henri Christophe University, built by the Dominican government in the community of Limonade in Cape Haitian for some US$30,000,000, will also be a source of employment.
The Dominican government, through the Center of Investment and Exports of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), is awaiting for there to be more security and for the end of the analysis of the results of a feasibility study for the development of a broad-based international economic free zone in the central city of Chambrun, some 19 kilometers from Port-au-Prince.
The mega-project is called the Quisqueya Development Corporation, for the original name of the island. It would be composed of an industrial polygon, agro-industrial projects, telecommunication companies, golf courses and hotels, along with a space for housing, commerce and schools among other things.
Its cost, estimated by the CEI-RD director, Eddy Martinez, would be between US$100 and US$200 million. Besides the Haitians, there would also be investors from Taiwan and the United States. "We hope that 10,000 jobs would be created in the first five years," estimated Martinez.
The description of the bi-national project drawn up by the agency shows that the WIN Group, one of the principle business conglomerates of Haiti, has set aside a 461 hectare piece of land outside of Port-au-Prince for the construction of the first stage of the ambitious project that should get underway or begun by 2013, if the social conditions permit it, according to Martinez.
In their 2010 yearly report, the CEI-RD also cited the contracting of the consulting firms of VHM, SA and KOIOS Associates, LLC for working up an architectural master-plan for the construction of the principle office buildings and a financial and economic assessment.
Why the interest?
"The primary interest of both countries is that we will be able to grow. It is not in our interests to have a state whose prosperity is very unequal to that of Haiti, which then what it does, we can say, is promote in this case the migration or the emigration of Haitians towards here. We are interested in a greater level of prosperity and generation of wealth in Haiti which offers opportunities to the Haitians in their own country. And this, in the end, will be convenient for us also, we will sell more products, we will sell more services, we will invest more, the same as the Haitian side," said Martinez.
The Diagnostic Study for Creating Incentives for the Commercial Exchange with the Republic of Haiti, elaborated by the Dominican government by DASA Economic and Financial Consultants in December 2010, refers to the fact that at the present juncture of the Haitian reconstruction after the destruction of the 7.0 earthquake two years ago, "it would be interesting to evaluate the establishing of safe areas for setting up industries and companies in Haitian territory."
"From the practical point of view, the issue of investment safety is one of the most discouraging elements for the investor," says the analysis. "Each job in Haiti has an impact on the Dominican Republic, because generally, part of the Haitian income is spent to buy products from the Dominican Republic which is the second most important supplier to Haiti, and for this reason we have made so much effort for the investments to keep coming," explained the CEI-RD director Martinez.
He has in view the expansion in this project of "call centers" as has been achieved in the Dominican Republic, above all for the English and French markets.
One sector that has shown the inconvenience of the low productive development of Haiti is the Dominican tourist sector. The National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Asonahores) has established its opposition to both countries promoting themselves as a single tourist destination, because they feel that Haiti causes a negative feeling as a country brand. Instead, they prefer supporting collaboration and consultations.
It will not be competition
For the CEI-RD, a project of this type would not place Haiti as competition for the Dominican Republic. The director sees this as more of a way to help the development and provide collaboration of the two nations. "It is not good for us to have a State of such unequal prosperity with regard to Haiti, because this then promotes the emigration of Haitians... This in the end, will be good for us also, we will sell more products, we will sell more services, we will make more investments," concluded Martinez.
The DR is the economic asylum of more than two million Haitians
Haitians immigrate to the Dominican Republic in search of economic betterment, jobs or to go forward in their studies. It is estimated that more than two million live in the country and according to the General Directorate for Migration, as many as a million are here in an irregular situation.
The Secretary of State for Higher Education in Haiti, Jean Claude Francois, counts 15,000 students from his nation in Dominican universities. The construction sector prefers the cheap labor of Haitian nationals, and this is the chief occupation for them in this country.
Due to the informality with which many of them are employed, there is little contribution of taxes to the state. Nonetheless the Ministry of Public Health estimates a yearly investment of some RD$400,000,000 in health attentions provided in different services to Haitians.
The Chancellor Carlos Morales has said that the Dominican Republic cannot support "the human and economic costs of the serious situation" of Haiti, which are reflected to a large measure in their migration.
In order to have a greater control, not only of the Haitians, but rather of all the foreigners in general, in October of last year, the Regulation for the Application of the Migration Law 285-04 went into effect, and this included providing an identity card, with fingerprints and signature to the foreign workers contracted by national businesses, and provided by the National Directorate of Migration.
Other investments of the DR in Haiti to create jobs and development
The private investments of Dominican capital in Haiti create thousands of jobs in the poorest state in the Americas. With more than 12 years in the country, the construction firm of Mera, Muñoz & Fondeur has some 300 employees, the majority Haitian. Among their projects is the rebuilding and pavement of 43 kilometers of the Jacmel highway, in a consortium, and a sub-contract for the repairs and reconditioning of a section of the National Highway.
The free zone Industrial Development Company (Codevi), which was set up in 2001 in the frontier city of Ouanaminthe (Juana Mendez), creates 6.500 direct jobs and 32,000 indirect jobs.
At the public level, in May 2011 the governments inaugurated the bi-national project called Green Frontier, which was begun by the Ministries of the Environment of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, together with the Secretary of Foreign Relations of the Kingdom of Norway, in D'Osmond, Ouanaminthe
The program includes the creation of jobs with reforestation plans, the establishment of small infrastructures for irrigation as well as the improvement of housing conditions.
Although the government has not quantified how much or how many, it is expected that the recently inaugurated Henri Christophe University, built by the Dominican government in the community of Limonade in Cape Haitian for some US$30,000,000, will also be a source of employment.
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