Who Pays to Re-Build Haiti?

by Tony Chavira

Before I give you my argument, let me first give you some context. Late last year there was an interesting article in Poder 360 about the feasibility of accepting international investment in the Haitian economy following all the recent political turmoil the small island nation's had to deal with:

After years of political upheaval, long-suffering Haiti is enjoying a period of relative stability and progress. The economy is growing for the first time in decades, and violence is down, thanks in large part to a United Nations military force, led by Brazil and Argentina and Chile.

In fact, Haiti’s government, together with private sector leaders, are declaring that the country is once again “open for business.”

That was their message at the 33rd annual Miami Conference on the Caribbean, held recently at the downtown Intercontinental Hotel.

Improvements have been made at the port terminal in Port-au-Prince to speed up handling of commerce, industry leaders say. The number of days needed to open a new business, has been cut from 250 to only 75.

"We see a lot of positive changes in Haiti. We're excited," said Jose Perez-Jones, senior vice president of Miami-based shipping line Seaboard Marine, a major carrier of Haitian imports and exports.

And then, they were stricken by the recent earthquake and one could argue that they are back to square one economically. In fact, some argue that the country is "finished" and will never be able to fully recover from the destructive force of the earthquake. We all know about the plenitude of non-profit organizations, foundations, governments and non-government entities like the UN who stepped in all at once with whatever disaster-relief facilities they have available, and that kind of intervention has become the typical response to enormous natural disaster situations. If there were ever a great reason to believe in social services, free health care and subsidized housing, disaster relief would be it.

But there is a whole sector that is high-lit in the Poder 360 article that is being ignored now that the focus is again on the country's instability. Where is the multi-national business sector now that the earthquake has hit? Where is the sense of dynamic investment and guerrilla building? The zeitgeist of investment can't just disappear into thin air, especially when the government's gone do far out of it's way to aid the process of starting new businesses! This, of all times, is exactly when Haiti needs the help of the world to rebuild... but governments, non-government entities and non-profits can only do so much, and casual donors (though kind to give in Haiti's time of need) cannot be expected to singularly foot the bill for services while the transnational business sector pull out or wait around until everyone else has given enough to re-stabilize the country.

This is especially frustrating when you realize now would be the ideal time to invest in the country: pull together your investments and hire a Haitian workforce for a direct investment in the Haitian infrastructure. First, Haiti clearly needs the infrastructural redevelopment and obvious upgrades now more than ever. Second, the Haitian people probably need the work as soon as humanly possible for both economic and psychological reasons. Third, a multinational corporation looking for a stronghold on a sector would be smart to invest now in order to solidify their position as one of the companies that really helped to rebuild the country after this terrible tragedy. Not only is it legitimately helpful, but its fantastic public relations!

Regardless, I don't know where the expectation that non-business entities should be solely responsible for disaster relief efforts came from exactly, but it would be great to see more public-private partnership money in a time like this... when the people of Haiti could use it the most.