Institutional Capacity Building in Trade and Tourism

Organization of of
American States
Institutional Capacity Building in Trade and Tourism
Maryse Robert, Chief, Office of Trade
Department of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism
Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI)
Organization of
American States
Mexico, November 4-5, 2009

Organization of
American States
Trade Capacity Building in Haiti
http://www.sedi.oas.org/dttc/haiticourse/press.asp
- Cours sur le commerce international: L’intégration d’Haïti au système multilatéral et
régional (2008), organized with The Bureau de Coordination et de Suivi des Accords (under the Prime
Minister’s Office) and with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
- Objectives:
- to train Haitian government officials and members of the private sector on key issues of the
multilateral and regional trade agenda;
- to better prepare the public and private sectors to the challenges related to the negotiations of
trade agreements as well as the accompanying measures that will help Haiti benefit from the
implementation of these agreements.
- The issues covered in the course included: the evolution of the multilateral system from the GATT to the
World Trade Organization (WTO), the regional agreements in the Americas, CARICOM Single Market and
Economy (CSME), the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), the HOPE legislation (I and II), the Economic
Partnership Agreement between CARIFORUM and the European Community, market access for goods,
agriculture, SPS, rules of origin, services, investment, IPR, and dispute settlement.

Bilateral and Regional Trade
Agreements
Organization of
American States
NAFTA
EU, EFTA
Japan
Korea
Canada
USA
CAFTA-DR
Mexico
Canada-CRI
Dominican
Republic
Bahamas
Haiti
(CARICOM members but not in CSME)
China
Singapore
Australia
Thailand
G-3
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Chile-
Cent. Amer.
Chile
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
CACM
Colombia
Ecuador
ACE 59
Peru
Bolivia
ACE 36
ACE 35
Panama
ACN
ACE 58
ACE 59
Venezuela
ACE 59
Paraguay
Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados,
Belize, Dominica, Grenada,
Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia,
St. Kitts & Nevis,
St. Vincent & the Grenadines,
Suriname,
Trinidad &
Tobago
Brazil
Argentina
MERCOSUR
CARICOM
CSME
Uruguay
Spaghetti bowl
FTAA
of trade
(proposed)
agreements
Source: IADB.

Organization of
American States
Support to Vulnerable Groups and SMEs in Maximizing
their Benefits from International Trade
• This program seeks to address the exclusion of marginalized groups (in particular women,
young people and indigenous groups) and SMEs, from the benefits of international trade,
thereby protecting them from potential challenges to their livelihood and contributing to
reduce poverty and inequity, through capacity building of human resources and
strengthening of institutions.
• The program will achieve this goal by:
– (i) strengthening institutions at the national and local level to increase their ability to serve
marginalized groups and SMEs in maximizing their benefits from trade and regional integration
agreements;
– (ii) providing marginalized groups (in particular women, young people and indigenous groups) and
SMEs, with the necessary tools to actively participate in trade and regional integration policy
decision making; and
– (iii) providing capacity building tools for linking marginalized groups with established businesses
and exporters through supply chains and association mechanisms.
• Funding: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

Organization of
American States
Using IPR Business Tools to Increase Export Earnings
• Pilot Project in Belize, Grenada, and Jamaica (in
discussion to extend it to Haiti)
• To identify which products may have potential for
increased export earnings by employing IP business
tools and strategies
• Partner: Light Years IP
• Funding: Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA)

Organization of
American States
Trade Reference Center for HAITI
http://ctrc.sice.oas.org/TRC/Haiti/HaitiMain_f.asp
• Objective: To provide easy access to trade-related information on Haiti
• The Trade Information Database for Haiti includes current information on Haiti's trade policy and trade
negotiations including those at the WTO, the regional level and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy
(CSME). It also contains resources for further research such as articles, impact studies, and data.
• Available in French and English
• The Trade Reference Center for HAITI is part of the Caribbean Trade Reference Centre (CTRC), which was
developed by the OAS Foreign Trade Information System (SICE), with funding from the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) to facilitate access to relevant trade-related information to
users in the Caribbean and to increase dissemination of information on Caribbean trade. The CTRC is
comprised of 14 country-specific Trade Information Databases (TID), which centralize official trade policy
documents, articles and studies, data and other information related to trade policy in each country as well
as documents on trade policy issues confronting the Caribbean.

Organization of
American States
Support to CTMO-HOPE
• Support to CTMO-HOPE
– To attract foreign direct investment in Haiti
• To take advantage of HOPE II and export duty-free from
2008-2018 apparel and some other goods to the US
market
• Funding: CIDA

Organization of
American States
Institutional Strengthening to the CFI
• Objective: To provide institutional strengthening to the Centre for the
Facilitation of Investment (CFI)
• Exchange of best practices on investment promotion and facilitation (with
funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA))
• Support to the Website (translation into English)
• Building Consensus among Haitian stakeholders (govt, private sector,
academia) in attracting investment in the tourism sector (Conference on
August 3, 2009 in Port-au-Prince)

Organization of
American States
Institutional Strengthening in the Tourism Sector:
Hospitality Training and Certification Project
• Objective: To improve the human resources capacity of hospitality
providers through training, technology and tools, ensuring
reliability, high quality and more competitive pricing of products
• Training institutions and providing them with programs enabling
future certification of new hospitality sector employees
• The project is executed with the Ministry of Tourism and funding
from OAS FEMCIDI

Organization of
American States
Institutional Strengthening in the Tourism Sector
Project Village Labadie: Community- Based Tourism Development
• Objective: The village of Labadie occupies a strategic sector of the North Region of
the country, region which includes attractions that could potentially transform it into
the No. 1 touristic destination of Haiti. Adjacent to the village is a Royal Caribbean
cruise ship complex with receives hundreds of tourists each week. As of Dec. 1,
2009, the world’s biggest cruise ship will arrive in Labadie
• Currently however the tourists do not leave the complex and the Labadie villagers
derive a very limited financial benefit from this arrangement. The project thus aims
at developing community tourism in Labadie and focuses on sensitizing the
population to the benefits of tourism, establishing a system of trash collection and
management, establishing and implementing a strategy to “beautify” the village as
well as the creation of touristic products
• The project is executed with the Ministry of Tourism and funding from OAS
FEMCIDI

Organization of
American States
Institutional Strengthening in the Tourism Sector
Haiti Public Attitudes and Awareness Project (HTAAP)
• Objective: to sensitize the Haitian population to the potential for the development
of the tourism sector as a means of economic and social improvement
• The main theme/message of the HTAAP – “VOYE PEYI’w MONTE, KORE
TOURIS’ [Develop your country – big-up tourism!!! ]
• Training of “animateurs communautaires” and journalists (development of media
handbook)
• Development of a website
• Media campaign to promote pride in rich and unique Haitian heritage and culture
• The project is executed with the Ministry of Tourism and funding from
OAS FEMCIDI

Organization of
American States
Merci beaucoup!
Thank you very much!
¡Muchas gracias!