Above: construction at Haiti’s Caracol Industrial Park earlier this year

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti’s Caracol Industrial Park will soon receive a $50 million grant, following approval by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Over the next six years, the IDB plans to provide as much as $180 million in grants for the park, which is being built on a 250-hectare plot and could mean as many as 40,000 jobs.

The IDB first approved a grant of $55 million for the park in July of last year, with Korean firm Sae-A, a garment manufacturer, signing the first occupancy agreement at the park.

Haiti’s Societe Nationale des Parcs Industriels owns the facility, along with another in Port-au-Prince, and is reportedly in negotiations with a number of firms interested in setting up shop in the Caracol area.

Haiti’s Peintures Caribes painting firm was the second tenant to sign on at the park, with initial plans for a total of 160 workers at the park; the company reportedly has expanded its plans to as many as 300.

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

The IDB, the leading multilateral donor in Haiti, has approved $590 in new grants in the country since Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, with $479 million to support projects in areas including agriculture, education, energy, transport, water and private sector development.

In an interview with Caribbean Journal last year, Jose Agustin Aguerre, the manager of the Haiti Country Department for the IDB, spoke more about the organization’s work in Haiti.