Forum to find avenues for Caribbean construction in Haiti

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Friday December 17, 2010 – Next month will see a mass gathering in Trinidad of construction players from across the Caribbean looking to get in on ground in Haiti’s reconstruction efforts. 

The Caribbean Construction Forum, which is being held up by organisers as the first regional meeting of the construction sector, will gather together stakeholders to share perspectives and plan a roadmap for the reconstruction of Haiti following this year’s devastating earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians and destroyed much of Haiti’s capital and infrastructure. 

Early estimates by the Inter-American Development Bank placed reconstruction costs at US$14 billion. So far, mostly North American countries have been aggressively pursuing millions of dollars in rebuilding contracts with several United States government-sponsored forums being held across the US to guide American contractors on how to successfully bid for a contract. However, the Caribbean Construction Forum is now trying to provide similar avenues for regional contractors. 

Organisers of the forum being held from January 31 to February 1, 2011, have titled the meeting as “Haiti Reconstruction – 74 Approved Projects” and participants are being encouraged to actively study the Haitian governments’ Action Plan for National Recovery and Development of Haiti (March 2010) as they bring their perspectives to bear on the issues at hand.

In addressing the impetus behind the upcoming forum, organisers expressed the view that the Caribbean construction sector can play a major role in the Haiti reconstruction effort. They said the forum would not only specifically address the reconstruction efforts in Haiti and the opportunities for effective involvement, but also encourage participants to learn construction and engineering lessons from the tragic episode.

The two-day forum will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain and the participants expected to attend range from architects, engineers, planners, surveyors, to regional government officials, to Haitian construction industry officials, to other special interest groups including representatives from the major telecoms, community and human resource development agencies. 

Other focuses of the forum will be: the benefits of effective interaction between Caribbean construction sector stakeholders, business-to-business opportunities with regional counterparts, and institutional and organisational strengthening.

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