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Historic Haiti trade mission by Bill Clinton fuels conversation, optimism

Posted by CaribShout on October 6, 2009 at 6:24pm

Bill Clinton, UN special envoy to Haiti and former US president, center, shakes hands with people during his visit to a private port where a new free trade zone will be located in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009. Clinton and a trade delegation of at least 200 businessmen are in Haiti to encourage a trade and investment mission in Haiti. Ramon Espinosa / AP Photo BY JACQUELINE CHARLES jcharles@MiamiHerald.com CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, Haiti -- A relaxed Bill Clinton gave the dozens of oversized aluminum fish tanks a once-over and issued his best sales pitch to the busload of foreign investors he had brought along. The fish farm not only provides a high source of protein to Haitians, but it puts money in poor people's pockets, Clinton said as four Haitian farmers looked on, wondering what to make of the high-profile visit by the silver-haired, ex-U.S. president and what it means for their hard-luck lives. ``Anybody who invests in this makes a profit right away,'' Clinton, the United Nations special envoy for Haiti, said about the farm, which raises tilapia and splits the profits with local farmers. ``It is the least expensive, highest-guaranteed return project I have seen in any country in which I've worked, anywhere in the world.'' As Clinton ended his third visit in seven months as Haiti's chief spokesman, the Inter-American Development Bank and United Nations were still surveying how many, if any, new investments were forged or jobs created because of the trade mission. The one-day event attracted 600 participants, at least 200 of them foreign investors. ``This is a process,'' said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, addressing the fact that no large-scale, job-creating investments were announced at the end of the event. ``What we need to do is work together.'' Still, even as Clinton and Moreno pledge to follow up with investors, some Haitian business leaders are calling the conference a success. It brought people to Haiti who otherwise would not have come and sent a signal that after years of political turmoil and economic woes, the storm-battered nation is once again courting foreign investments. ``The most important thing here is we are not talking about aid, we are not talking about stability, we are not talking about assistance,'' said Georges Sassine, Haiti's point man on the U.S. Congress-approved HOPE II legislation, which aims to create jobs here by giving local garment manufacturers duty-free access to the U.S. market. ``We are talking about actual businesses. This is the next level. Even if nothing concrete comes out of this, which I doubt, it already has been successful,'' he said. ``The fact that these people agreed to come, came and these discussions took place, to me is a big success. Now it depends on us, the follow-up.'' In the past year, Haitian businessmen and women have invested millions of dollars in new ventures including upscale hotels, restaurants, shopping centers in Petionville, and a new electrical plant near Cité Soleil. But the investments are a drop in the bucket in a place where the vast majority of the country's 9 million citizens live on less than $2 a day and scrape a living off the edges of a formal economy with fewer than 300,000 jobs. As the international community pushes investment, Clinton, the star marketer, has his work cut out. Local Haitian investors still face high loan rates, exorbitant port fees, long customs waits and weak government laws. ``The government has some specific things to do, such as improve the energy -- the availability and the costs. That should be the first priority,'' said Pierre-Marie Boisson, an economist and member of a government committee examining ways to make Haiti competitive. ``If I had a chance to speak with Mr. Clinton, I would tell him he should work with the government to advise them to do the basic things to improve the business environment. And to improve that requires government decisions, and some decisions are not that difficult.'' For instance, while the government has decreased the amount of time it takes to form a company here from almost 300 days to 70, the wait is still too long, Haitians say. In his visit, he met with both President René Preval and Prime Minister Miche`le Pierre-Louis. He also met privately with Haitian lawmakers, who were noticeably absent from the gathering that focused on opportunities in renewable energy, agribusiness and textiles. Senate President Kely Bastien said lawmakers were not invited to the conference. He said he has since asked for a follow-up meeting among the government, lawmakers and the private sector to address concerns about the investment climate. Bastien was among a small group who joined Clinton as he wrapped up his visit by also promoting tourism with a tour of Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' nearly $55 million expansion project in Labadee and the ruins of the San Souci Palace in northern Haiti on Friday. Even with all its challenges, there are opportunities in Haiti. Billionaire George Soros recently launched a $25 million equity investment fund with the potential of growing to $150 million. Its first investment is a new $50 million industrial park near Cité Soleil that is poised to create 25,000 new jobs, Clinton said. Brazil's manufacturers are also eyeing Haiti. ``Our government led by President [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] is very interested in helping to create better conditions for Haiti to develop itself,'' said Fernando Pimentel, director of ABIT, which serves 90,000 companies and 2 million workers. Both Clinton and the IDB, which has increased its lending for Haitian businesses, say the best opportunities for recruiting foreign investments is through the success of local companies. One such company is Caribbean Harvest, a tilapia farm on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince that Clinton spent Thursday afternoon touring. At the end of the tour, he touted the project's use of solar panels and other environmentally friendly techniques, telling a group of investors the 3-year-old project could easily triple its domestic production with the right capital. ``Take the tour, treat yourself,'' he said. ``It is an example of entrepreneurship that is infinitely expandable.'' At the farm, fish are raised in an aluminum pool for two months before being sold at 10 cents each to local farmers who put them in a cage. The cage is then put in the river, and the fish are fed three times a day for the next four months. Those that weigh one pound are sold back to the farm, while undersized ones are sold by local merchant women who earn as much as $30 a day selling them on the streets. Those sold back to the farm are then processed and sold to local restaurants, markets and hotels. The profits are then shared between the business and the farmer. ``Right now,'' said Valentin Abe, the farm owner, ``we are requesting funding from any and everybody who is willing to help.''

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