Latin America and the Caribbean

Our Swift Response in Haiti

Haiti's needs were urgent. IFC's response was swift. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck the country in January, IFC quickly approved and made available a $35 million emergency investment program to help private companies get back to business, reestablish critical services, and create or preserve jobs.

The program was a key step in our commitment to helping rebuild Haiti's infrastructure and garment, telecommunications, tourism, and financial sectors.

In these challenging times, IFC aims to help textile firms capitalize on favorable trade legislation, which nearly triples duty-free quotas for Haitian clothing exports to the United States. As part of our program, IFC is financing the expansion of an important garment manufacturer in Northern Haiti, which will create 4,000 new jobs by the end of 2011. In addition, IFC has provided $7.5 million to enable a group of Haitian investors to resume construction of the Oasis hotel complex in Port-au-Prince as a business facility. We are also providing $3.4 million for the first phase of Canada-based Eurasian Minerals' gold and copper exploration in Haiti, which supports 800 jobs.

In addition, we are intensifying our advisory services in Haiti to help companies and government agencies retain and attract investors. This includes simplifying the regulatory framework for special economic zones, improving the country's ports, and supporting the Haitian government's plans to decentralize zones outside of Port-au-Prince. IFC's goal is to help attract new garment companies to invest $30 million in Haiti, which will support 9,500 new jobs in these zones.

In April, we completed the structuring of the international bidding process for TELECO, which will bring the country's largest foreign direct investment since the earthquake—a nearly $100 million investment in Vietnam's biggest mobile telephone operator, Viettel, to expand telecommunications services in Haiti.

In 2008, we opened a local office in the country. Our strategy seeks to increase access to basic services and develop human capital. Though the road to recovery will be long, IFC stands as a long-term partner in Haiti, with one common objective—to create jobs for the Haitian people and help improve their quality of life.

So we work with companies, governments, and local people to maximize benefits and minimize risks. We are helping raise environmental, social, and corporate governance standards in this area, furthering the work we began nearly a decade ago with the Extractive Industries Review, the most comprehensive sector review ever conducted by the World Bank Group.

We also promote accountability by requiring our extractive-industry clients to publicly disclose taxes and royalties they pay to governments—and by keeping track of the numbers ourselves. In 2009, IFC's oil, gas, and mining clients contributed about $7 billion in government revenues and provided about 128,000 jobs.