Diplomatic Videos

Haiti: Investment Opportunities Knocking for The Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas (defend.ht) - Big or small, near or far, the opportunity for investing in an emerging Haiti can come from any country anywhere. Seasoned businessman Gregory Mevs, volunteering as the Haitian Ambassador of Trade and Investment, demonstrated the opportunities that the business community of the Bahamas had in Haiti.

Ambassador Mevs delivered a presentation alongside the Haitian Ambassador to the Bahamas, Antonio Rodrigue, and the Chairman of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employer's Confederation.

The presentation was two-fold, first, to show Haiti as a tourist destination and the second, on doing business in Haiti.

Business people attending the presentation benefited by hearing a detailed overview of the needs in Haiti for tourism infrastructure and how those needs translate into business opportunities that Bahamians can vantage from.

Tourism and related services sit atop the priority sectors where opportunities are ripe for investment and other sectors with possibilities are textiles, agriculture, fisheries, livestock, construction and energy. In the next 4 years, $5 billion in revenue is estimated in these areas alone.

Secondary industries such as telecommunications, information technology and financial services are budding areas of opportunity.

Facts and Figures

The Haitian government, led by President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has set a "modest" goal to attract $300 million in investments and in the approaching year of 2013, $600 million.

To meet those goals, Ambassador Mevs, in his presentation, revealed that incentives such as a 15 to 20 years exemption from income tax an elimination of capital gains and stamp taxes are available.

"In tourism, Haiti is spending a lot of money on infrastructure, in the north on airports and terminals for cruise ships. And we need hotel rooms. We need everything. And we need people to train Haitians in this industry," relayed Mevs.

The Chairman of the BCCEC, Chester Cooper, said he is pushing to see a change in policy between Haiti and the Bahamas. Cooper spoke of his work on ending the embargo on agricultural goods to start.

"The Bahamas government should put in place its own inspection protocols and expedite the removal of these restrictions. Ending the embargo will not only reduce the cost of Haitian products imported into The Bahamas and improve trade, but taking it to a logical conclusion, it might help the Haitian economy and our relations with Haiti by improving commerce," explained Cooper.

Gregory Mevs will continue to travel to other countries visiting chambers of commerce and sharing opportunities and knowledge on business and investment opportunities in Haiti.

The new Haitian government has pledged to create and environment conducive to economic growth and is explaining to the world that, in this early transition, Haiti is open to investment and business.