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Doing business & staying in touch

It is usual to wear a suit for initial or formal calls. The British Trade Correspondent can put visitors in touch with a reliable English-French translator if required. Business visitors are generally entertained to lunch or dinner by their agents or important customers and should return invitations either at their hotel or a restaurant. The best time to visit is November to March.

Office hours: 

Mon-Fri 0800-1600.

Economy: 

Haiti's average annual income of about US$500 per head is the lowest in the western hemisphere; moreover, vast disparities exist between the incomes of rich and poor. The World Bank estimates that 85% of the people live below the absolute poverty line.

Two-thirds of the employed population work in agriculture, mainly in the coffee plantations which generate 25% of Haiti's export earnings, although these have suffered from periodic droughts and persistently low world prices. Sugar cane, sweet potatoes, cocoa and sisal are also grown for export.

The mining industry extracts marble, limestone and clay; there are also unexploited deposits of copper, silver and gold. The rest of the manufacturing sector involves food processing, metal products and textiles. Tourism, once promising, has all but vanished thanks to the country's chronic political instability.

Haiti's problems are so intractable that even after repeated, large injections of foreign aid and an IMF-approved economic plan, the economy remains stubbornly inert. The appalling state of the country's infrastructure has much to do with this. The economy did however grow by 2.5% in 2006.

Haiti joined the Caribbean trading bloc CARICOM as a provisional member in 1997 and became a full member in 2002.

GDP: 

US$4.3 billion (2006).

Main exports: 

Light manufactured goods, coffee, oils and mangos.

Main imports: 

Food products and manufactured goods.

Main trading partners: 

USA and EU.

Staying in touch in Haiti

Telephone: 

There are no area codes. The internal service, operated by Telecommunications d'Haïti (Teleco), is reasonable. There are telephone booths in the towns which take cards.

Mobile phone: 

No roaming agreements have been declared. Handsets can be hired locally.

Internet: 

Internet cafes can be found in towns and cities.

Post: 

Airmail to Europe takes up to one week. The main post office in Port-au-Prince, Cité de l'Exposition, is in place d'Italie.

Post office hours: 

Mon-Fri 0800-2000, Sat 0830-1200. Letters posted after 0900 will not be despatched until the following working day.

Media: 

Radio is Haiti's most important source of information. There are more than 250 private radio stations.

Press: 

• The two main dailies, Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste, are published in French.
• Haiti Progres, also in French, is published weekly.

Television: 

• PVS Antenne is a private French language channel.
• Télévision Nationale d'Haiti is a government-owned cultural channel, broadcasting in Creole, French and Spanish.

Radio: 

• Stations include Radio Metropole, Radio Galaxie and Radio Caraïbes FM.

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