Above: construction at Caracol

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Peintures Caraibes, the first Haitian tenant at Haiti’s new Caracol Industrial Park, expects to hire around 160 workers and begin operations there this year.

The paint manufacturer, which will continue operating its factory in Port-au-Prince, was the second tenant to sign on at the park, which is a project financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United States government.

The 593-acre facility’s sponsors expect it to eventually host as many as 37,000 workers.

Its anchor tenant is South Korea’s Sae-A, which will open a garment factory there this year, with eventual plans to open Haiti’s first textile mill in the park. It has said it plans to expand its payroll to 20,000 workers over the course of a few years.

Haiti’s government, which owns the Caracol Industrial Park, is in talks with potential tenants across a variety of industrial sectors.

George Sassine, a Haitian businessman, was recently appointed director general of Haiti’s SONAPI industrial park agency.

The IDB contributed $55 million in grant resources for the first phase at Caracol, with a proposal to be considered for a $50 million second phase operation later this year.

The United States is providing $124 million in grants for the project.