Every year investors and entrepreneurs are looking for their next opportunity. Haiti is still a land of opportunity for those willing to put in the work. Haiti also has a strong, young, labor workforce. That means no business can possibly lack in human capital with so many people willing to work hard to drive productivity. Simply said, there’s a chance to build your empire in Haiti while having a positive impact on the local economy. So where are these opportunities?

ENERGY

“Haiti has substantial renewable energy potential.  Still, the country faces significant challenges to gaining access to clean and renewable energy.  On average, 85 percent of electricity is produced from imported fossil fuels. The underutilized opportunities for small hydropower, smart grid and biomass systems make Haiti an interesting renewable energy prospect.   Much of the population relies on biomass such as charcoal and wood fuel as their main source of energy.  Although solar and wind resources are available throughout the country, very little of this potential has been developed”.

 Opportunities lie in household energy, electricity, petroleum products and renewable energy. 

Source: Export.gov  – https://www.export.gov/article?id=Haiti-Energy

GARMENT

  • Haiti is the fastest growing garment exporter to the United States. Exports increased 16.3% in the period Jan-Sept 2011 compared to the same period in 2010 while China’s decreased 3.9%. 
  • Haiti is the 5th largest supplier to the U.S. of knit T-shirts, singlets, and tank tops (HTS 6109), measured by the total value of imports in 2006-2009.

Source: http://www.cfihaiti.net/pages/1/8-garment.php.html

AGRICULTURE

“Although many Haitians make their living through subsistence farming, Haiti also has an agricultural export sector. Agriculture, together with forestry and fishing, accounts for about one-quarter (28% in 2004) of Haiti’s annual gross domestic product and employs about two-thirds (66% in 2004) of the labour force. Haiti’s dominant cash crops include coffee, mangoes, and cocoa. Haiti has decreased its production of sugarcane, traditionally an important cash crop, because of declining prices and fierce international competition”.

Source: globaltenders.com – http://www.globaltenders.com/economy-of-haiti.php/

TOURISM

“Tourism development in Haiti has largely been a missed opportunity. Had its recent history been different, Haiti would probably have been well ahead of its regional competitors given the country’s leading role in Caribbean tourism in the late 1940s/early 1950s. Competitive advantage is not exclusively a natural phenomenon, but is increasingly a man-made one, driven by science, technology, information and innovation. As such, it is not simply the stock of natural resources of Haiti that will determine her competitiveness in tourism, but rather, how these resources are managed and to what extent they are complemented with man-made innovations. Given that tourism is labor-intensive, in an economy with an abundant, cheap pool of labor a large amount of job creation can be achieved in a short period of time. “

Source: Haiti Leve –  https://haitileveproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Haiti-Tourism-Brief.pdf

TELECOMMUNICATIONS/INTERNET

Four companies operate telephone services: NATCOM, HAITEL, COMCEL and DIGICEL. NATCOM was born of the acquisition by Vietnamese firm VIETEL of the majority of the stocks of TELECO during the privatization of TELECO, a semi-public company belonging to BRH (Haiti’s central bank), which had the monopoly on telecommunications. HAITEL (1998) has a majority of private Haitian capital; COMCEL (1999) and DIGICEL (2005) are direct foreign investments. The agreement struck with VIETEL opens the door for the re-establishment of a network of landlines which had disappeared from the Haitian market.

Internet access service is provided by four suppliers: ACCESS-HAITI, HAINET, ACN and LINK. They are authorized to use a network integrating high-speed internet services and all those involving broadband transmission. Several thousand Direct Way type VSAT are installed in Haiti.  Source: cfihaiti.net

Despite these exisiting providers, there is still a major opportunity, especially when providing solutions for internet access in rural areas.

 

By Ronald Cetoute, Co-founder of BEL Initiative