Caribbean & Central America - October 2009 (ISSN 1741-4458)

At least 200 potential investors showed up to a 1-2 October conference aimed at luring new business to Haiti. No deals were signed, but the very fact that the meeting took place at all suggests that the country's reputation is improving internationally.

The meeting, the largest investor conference ever held in Haiti, was organised by the Inter-American Development Bank and focused on expanding Haiti's garment, agriculture and energy industries. Some big US names turned out, including Gap, American Eagle Outfitters and Levi Strauss, as well as several Latin American textile firms. International banks, namely Canada's Scotiabank and US giant Citibank, sent representatives to discuss loans. 

It is hoped that the passage of the so-called HOPE II Act last year by the US congress, which gives Haitian exporters access to the US market on preferential terms, will kick start the country's garment industry. This employed round 130,000 in the 1980s but has now shrivelled to a few thousand workers after decades of political and economic turmoil.

Former US president Bill Clinton, who was appointed the UN's first special envoy to Haiti in May, personally recruited several of the conference attendees.  In an optimistic speech to investors he pointed out that representatives of the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which insures political risk in emerging economies, were among the conference guests: "That should be an encouraging sign, although I can tell you your political risk in Haiti is lower than it has been in my lifetime".

The conference took place on the same day that Haiti's new minimum wage regime took effect. Approved by congress in September, the minimum daily salary for textile workers increases from 70 gourdes, about US$1.75, to 125 gourdes, or US$3.10. For the majority of other workers, it rises from 70 to 200 gourdes, or about US$5 a day. Haiti's extremely low labour costs are one of its main attractions for foreign investors.

• Minustah

The United Nations security council voted unanimously on 13 October to renew the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for a sixth year. The current mission's force level of around 9,000 military and police personnel will be maintained. The council also agreed to recommendations made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to adapt Minustah's mandate to the improved security situation in Haiti. The UN chief said that it is increasingly unlikely that Minustah will have to conduct major military operations such as those carried out against the armed gangs that held sway over the Port-au-Prince suburb of Cité Soleil.