The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas should assess whether it can emulate Haiti’s model for developing an industrial park “the size of Trinidad” in Freeport, as a senior private sector executive yesterday urged Bahamian companies to aggressively pursue business opportunities in the Caribbean.

Speaking to Tribune Business from Haiti, where he is leading a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) trade mission, the organisation’s chairman, Chester Cooper, said Haiti’s Caracol Industrial Park had exposed a variety of possibilities for Bahamian companies.

Apart from the opportunity for Bahamian firms to bid on construction/development contracts on the Park’s planned factories and warehouses, Mr Cooper said the Bahamas should consider whether Caracol’s model could be applied to Freeport.

Noting that Caracol was attracting “very large garment companies” and paint manufacturer Sherwin Williams to establish factories there, part of a plan to generate a total 1,500 jobs.

“It’s a region in the north-east of Haiti,” Mr Cooper told Tribune Business of Caracol, “and they are essentially building a city with the land mass the size of Trinidad.

“What we are seeing here is a very interesting model for industrial development and something a country like ourselves can look at for a space like Freeport, creating industrial space for the Bahamas.”

While Caracol’s ambitions might seem like “pie in the sky”, Mr Cooper said much long-term planning had gone into the concept and development, suggesting the Bahamas could learn something when it came to its own industrial and national development plan.

Acknowledging that Haiti’s relatively inexpensive labour costs gave it a competitive advantage in manufacturing, Mr Cooper told Tribune Business: “We need to look and see what type of goods and services we might have a competitive advantage in making here.

“Particularly in Freeport, where we have large amounts of industrial space, factories, lots of skilled labour and access to the US market that we can exploit.

“We won’t be able to compete with products like they do in garment manufacturing, but there are some opportunities we can look at - high-end products for export or use by Bahamians as well. We can look at this model and see if it makes sense for the Bahamas, given the high cost of imports.”

Caracol also provided some more immediate opportunities for the Bahamas.

“There are RFPs out at the moment for the construction and development of warehouses, factories and residential housing,” Mr Cooper said.

“These are all open at the moment for bidding that Bahamians can participate in.”

The possibilities for Bahamian companies to export their goods, services and expertise throughout the Caribbean were one of the main messages coming from the Haiti trade mission, Mr Cooper said.

While business in the Bahamas may be slow, Mr Cooper said many firms “do not realise there are opportunities in the region that Bahamian entities can participate in.

“That is one of the messages coming out of this: Look outside, look at what opportunities are present in the region that they can participate in.”

To date, Mr Cooper said the 20-strong Bahamian delegation had met Haiti’s Centre for Investment, plus their counterpart Chamber of Commerce. Talks with the latter had focused on sharing ideas on how they could work with the BCCEC, with the Haiti body providing an on-ground presence for conducting due diligence.

The BCCEC team will also meet with “high level” Haitian government officials, including Gregory Mevs, the ambassador for trade and adviser to the president, with Mr Cooper describing construction and housing as the sectors likely presenting the greatest opportunities for Bahamians.

And, with just 10 per cent of Haiti’s mangos being exported, Mr Cooper said the BCCEC was set to continue lobbying the Government for an agriculture inspection programme that permitted direct imports by the Bahamas.

The Bahamian delegation were having their first one-on-one meetings with Haitian counterparts yesterday, and Mr Cooper said: “We’re exploring some real tangible opportunities, some real tangible ventures.”