9572: Job Growth Query for M Karshan (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Michelle Karshan:

I note with interest your recent submissions to the Corbett List
and wonder if you could enlighten us as to job creation efforts
in Haiti by the administration you represent.  On any day in
Port-au-Prince, one can see literally thousands of uniformed
young people walking to and from schools, and I for one am
wondering what kind of a future they will have in a country
where job growth has been so slight.

I am not talking about marginal, Hernando Desoto-type jobs in
the informal economy... of course people have to eat, and
selling oranges in the market does beat the alternative of
starving.  Those kinds of subsistence jobs will expand to absorb
people, more or less keeping up with the country's birthrate, I
imagine.

What I find troubling is that any local investment in Haiti is
going into businesses that involve little or no labor. 
Importing (groceries, hardware, automobiles, you name it),
specialized services involving computers or telephones, etc.
etc.  From what I can se no local money is going into
manufacturing or agriculture, industries which could create some
serious employment and might generate respectable salaries
relative to that earned by the streetside orange vendors.  As
for foreign investors, they are, in effect, being told by the
Ministry of Finance to take their investment money elsewhere.

The latter decision on the part of the Aristide administration
appears to be conscious and is in striking contrast with most
other countries in the world which sometimes seem to be tripping
over each other to attract investors.  

So, what exactly is the game plan for creating those 500,000 new
jobs which were talked about one year ago?  It's not an
impossible goal, and there are people (like myself) who would
love to help, but some direction is needed.

Lance Durban




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