HAITI SEES PROGRESS IN ELECTRICITY PLANT AND IRON MARKET
(Miami Herald) - By Jacqueline Charles
An electricity plant and a rebuilt Iron Market were among the new investments unveiled this week in Haiti.
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haiti inaugurated a new 30-megawatt $59.5 million electricity plant Thursday, increasing access to electricity for residents and industries.
E-Power is an investment by 54 Haitian and Haitian-Americans who six years ago proposed to a then-interim Haitian government the construction of a power plant to sell electricity to the state in order to increase access for the population.
The plant, built to withstand a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and category 4 hurricane, is located in Cite Soleil, a slum near the main airport. It will meet 15 percent of the capital's energy demands. The state's current capacity is 85 megawatts.
The facility -- whose investors also include South Korea's East-West Power company -- is state-of-the-art with a dedicated power-supply line into the capital's main industrial park, where factories currently rely on generators. Construction took 18 months.
The group has signed a 15-year agreement with state-owned Electricite d'Haiti to purchase power, saving the government between $24 million and $36 million a year, said Daniel-Gerard Rouzier, the visionary behind the project.
``Today is an extraordinary day for Haiti,'' he said. ``We need more investments and much less aid.''
The plant is the latest investment announced this week as Haiti commemorated the one-year anniversary of the tragic Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people.
Tuesday, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who co-chairs the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, helped inaugurate the opening of a rebuilt Iron Market, a famous commercial hub that was destroyed by the quake in downtown Port-au-Prince.
He also welcomed one of South Korea's largest manufacturers, Sae-a. The company will be the anchor tenant in a new industrial park being built in northern Haiti outside of Cap-Haitien.
Sae-a plans to invest about $80 million, which will create about 20,000 jobs.
The investment allows fabrics to be made in Haiti because it will include a fabric mill. Among its U.S. customers are Gap and Wal-Mart.
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