26859: Rigdon (comment) Doing Business in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: jrigdon@researchonline.net

I'm not an expert on Haiti business but I gan give some observations from
what I have learned over the past year.

I believe there is a Free Trade Industrial Park set up on the border between
Haiti and the D.R.  I don't know its status, but I would think that that
would be one of the first places to look into setting up any kind of a
factory.

I have heard from several people that very little land is available for sale
in and around Port au Prince and some lots that are available are very
expensive.  The one land sale I am familiar with in the past couple of years
was $120,000 U.S. for 2 acres about 5 miles from the airport.

I understand that there is some semblance of organization and infrastructure
on La Gonave.

The only America Company I saw operating there last summer was Dominoes
Pizza in Petionville and there was a sign on an office door in the same
building for import / export.  You might try contacting them for consulting.

While labor is cheap by world standards the cost / impossibility of all the
infrastructure needed to run a business is overwhelming.  We spent 16 man
hours looking for 2 C cell batteries to operate a laser level so we could
pour concrete.

John Rigdon
Tools and Resources for Haiti