Haiti - Economy : «6 months to open a company, it makes no sense !» (dixit Laurent Lamothe)
Last Friday, the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, who accompanied the President Martelly to the Benefit Concert of Julio Iglesias, in La Romana [Dominican Republic], had made the trip to meet nearly 200 investors. On the sidelines of this concert, the Prime Minister declared "when people come with the resources to create jobs, we tell them that we must wait 6 months to open a company, it makes no sense." He intends as the first week of the year multiply the efforts, so that in the first 2 months of 2013, open a company in Haiti, is not only easier, but much faster.
"[...] Seek investment is a marathon, not a sprint of 100 meters, there are many parameters that need to be addressed, [...] We started to put measures in place to ensure that companies can open in 10 days, it will be a major step, why ? Because here, for example tonight [Friday], we will meet 200 investors, and if tomorrow, some says us they come in Haiti and they need to invest to create 5,000 jobs, I can not give them an immediatly an authorization to operate... It will take time to open the company and during this time, they may become discouraged and open a business here in Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Puerto Rico...
We must put order in our business, what we call the business law, so they can come open companies faster. We saw it with Duty Free Americas (DFA) which just opened a beautiful boutique at the international airport, but to open this shop it has took 3 months ! [...] it is on this, on these structures, we are working to open a company quickly and that create jobs becomes easier.
We say that we need to create jobs, but when people come with resources to create jobs, we tell them that we must wait 6 months to open a company, it makes no sense, we must make things easy [...]
This is why, in the first week of January, I ask the Ministry of Commerce, the CFI... to set aside what they do, to focus during the first two months, on what is called the 'Doing Business', to open a company quickly and that the investment can begin to do, until we adjust the laws in consequences..."
