Business
Haiti rising from the ashes: Industrial Park attracting businesses
The Caracol project on a 617-acre (250-hectare) site was in the works long before the earthquake and is supposed to be Haiti’s largest private employer. The goal is to provide 20,000 jobs at the park and create 133,000 in all through cottage industries.
Sae-A, the main tenant, is scheduled to begin shipping T-shirts in September. Among the company’s 20 existing factories are plants in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Sae-A has contracts with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to make products in Haiti, and Target Corp. executives recently toured the project.
Workers will be paid Haiti’s minimum wage, which is US$5 a day, and will be eligible for bonuses based on performance.
Critics of garment sector in Haiti, say the wage isn’t enough to provide a living.
Critics also worry the industrial park could replicate earlier development efforts that spawned poor neighborhoods.
One of the biggest shantytowns in Haiti, Cite Soleil, was originally designed as a housing project for people working in a nearby manufacturing plant in Port-au-Prince. But when years of political instability scared off investors, the facility faltered and so did its employees. Cite Soleil is now a maze-like shantytown.
