Forging business links with Haiti

Montrealer Jean-Christophe Stefanovitch wanted to become a coffee importer to help peasant farmers in Haiti and enrich himself and Quebec spiritually and financially in the process.

But with few government or business organizations offering guidance, either in Quebec or Haiti, it would take him five years of visiting with a multitude of farmers and co-operatives before he could find a reliable group that could guarantee a steady flow of high-quality coffee.

"All I wanted to do was import coffee," said Stefanovitch, the founder of the Noula co-operative, distributor of free-trade coffee. "I didn’t think it would take so long."

Stefanovitch’s headaches are at the heart of a Montreal conference that began Thursday and continues Friday with the aim of establishing business links between Quebec, Canada and Haiti so entrepreneurs can invest more quickly.

"Haiti is in urgent need of jobs," said Nancy Roc, executive director of Incas Productions Inc., the organizer of the event, in partnership with the Haitian embassy in Canada and the consul-general in Montreal, billed as the first Quebec-Haiti Business Forum.

"It is up to Haitians from inside and outside the country, in partnership with authorities from Haiti, Canada and Quebec, to take into hand the reconstruction," through investment and business creation, she said.

Haitian government officials were on hand so investors could meet with the proper person, often a complicated procedure.

Greg Van Koughnett of Digicell, Haiti’s largest cellphone provider, noted projects need not be solely socialistic co-operatives to do good. Digicell entered Haiti in 2006 with the aim of 300,000 clients in five years. It achieved that in one month, and now has 2.2 million subscribers.

Jamaica and Haiti have become the company’s largest markets. It employs 900 people directly in Haiti, and creates nearly 100,000 indirect jobs, such as vendors who charge pennies to charge phones off car batteries.

"I think enlightened capitalism can go a long way," Van Koughnett said, noting the company’s foundation also has created more than 50 schools.

Haiti’s minister of commerce and industry said the government is working to streamline processes. Setting up a foreign business in Haiti, once a six-month process, can now be done in six weeks, she said.

Money is being invested in training centres, improving customs procedures and infrastructure like roads and ports to improve flow, with the hope foreign investments can lead to 140,000 jobs in the next five years.

By the forum’s end today, an official institution is to be named to serve as the liaison between Quebec, Canadian and Haitian businesses, organizer Roc said.