Conference
on investment opportunities in Haiti
The economic conference on Haiti’ s
tourist investment opportunities held in Boston,
Massachusetts was a tremendous success and gave birth to
a new project that casts light on the future of the
tourism industry in Haiti.
The conference gathered 53 American and
Haitian entrepreneurs from different business sectors as
well as other professionals. Throughout the gathering,
the participants focused the discussion on business
opportunities, political stability, safety and other
environmental issues.
The majority of the participants
expressed interest in Haiti’s strong workforce and its
potential for tourist development. The group is
convinced that the crisis has affected mostly greater
Port-au-Prince and took the first steps toward creating
an investment corporation to help with the planning and
financing a worthwhile development program.
An informal committee has been formed to
establish the basis for the creation of that
organization. The group is schedule to meet again in 90
days.
The participants have defined the
preliminary long-term goals of the cooperation as
follows:
Facilitate investment in the tourism
industry and the development of manufactured goods and
infrastructure to support the tourist industry.
Improve the quality of basic human
resource skills by creating pilot vocational schools in
Haiti.
Market and promote tourism and its
related attractions in such a way that Haiti will become
a premier tourist destination.
Create short-term projects that can
generate prompt social and economic appeasement for the
Haitian people.
Act as a channel and facilitator in
developing and implementing plans to improve Haiti’s
main resort areas; such as Port-au-Prince, Jacmel,
Gonaives, Cap Haitian and Jeremie.
Identify and prioritize the areas with
potential for enhancing Haiti’s tourism industry and
to plan, develop and implement initiatives aimed at
improving Haiti’s competitiveness as an ideal tourism
destination.
Develop a realistic approach that
consists of cultural, architectural, economic and
environmental considerations, all of which must be taken
into account in securing cooperation from all parties
including the citizen’s of Haiti, the Haitian
government, the civil society and each of the different
political groups.
