Trying to make Haiti's economy grow, among tent cities and despair
Haitians are trained for jobs in the large garment industry at the industrial park in Port au Prince.
January 13th, 2011
10:01 AM ET

Trying to make Haiti's economy grow, among tent cities and despair

A long-term, sustainable recovery in Haiti can't take place if the economy doesn't grow and the country doesn't take major steps toward becoming self-reliant. There is no shortage of ideas for ways to create jobs.

But beyond daily necessities like delivering food and water, cleaning facilities at tent cities and clearing rubble by hand, few ideas that would produce long-lasting results have gone from the drawing board to implementation.

So business leaders and the Interim Haitian Recovery Commission are turning to areas where there has been success in the past. At one point, Haiti's garment manufacturing sector employed over 100,000 people.

Today, 28,000 Haitians find themselves behind sewing machines or moving goods and supplies. A deal signed with a Korean company on the day before the anniversary of the earthquake promises to create 20,000 new garment industry jobs in the north of Haiti at a new industrial park and create 5,000 new homes in the region.

But how do you convince buyers and suppliers to continue doing business with you when your country was devastated by massive earthquake that crippled the infrastructure and left 230,000 people dead?

CNN's Steve Kastenbaum spoke with one factory owner about his experience getting the production lines humming again.

You can also listen to the CNN Radio Reports podcast on itunes or subscribe to the podcast here.

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Filed under: Economy • Haiti
soundoff (6 Responses)
  1. Cesar

    Haitians are good people. I hope they survive their hardships.

    January 13, 2011 at 4:45 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Chantelle

    Its so hard to believe the Haitians are still struggling in such devastating conditions 1 year on.. surely we can do more for this country..

    January 14, 2011 at 9:45 am | Report abuse |
  3. Nomeps

    Not only is Sarah Palin to blame for the earthquake in Haiti last year she is the reason Haitians are still suffering. The woman keeps stealing all the media attention away. Look at this past week for instance..all the media talked about was Sarah Palin instead of Haiti.

    January 14, 2011 at 12:31 pm | Report abuse |
  4. JEnniiffeere

    So why is it our country can be in such a debt that we will never swim out of it but when another country suffers or is in trouble we are always there to lend the helping hand at our cost but no others countries swimming in enrichment can???? for us is the right thing to do ? or is just another way for us to collect the fame??? hmmm wondering???

    January 14, 2011 at 2:11 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Sarah

    Can somebody please go after these fake money making charities like Red Cross, Unicef, World Vision & others. They collected billions of dollar all over the world for Haiti & the situation is worst then ever. These blood sucking charities all got rich & most their employees are living lavish lives with huge bank account balances. I beg anyone in a position to find out where the money went & to get it back ASAP to save those poor dying people. All those who took this money for themselves, all of you are murderer of innocent people. Hell is waiting for you!!!

    January 15, 2011 at 9:24 pm | Report abuse |
  6. EdProcs

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    September 23, 2011 at 1:46 am | Report abuse |
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