Background Prior to the 2010 earthquake,
Bill Clinton was named special envoy to Haiti by UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, whose connections with the
South Korean company
Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd were later put to work in the planning of the park. On May 24, 2010, the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) was signed into US law, ensuring preferential tariffs for Haitian-produced garments. On October 22, 2012
Hillary Clinton gave the keynote speech as acting US Secretary of State for the opening of the industrial park.
Projections The anchor tenant is S & H Global, S.A, a subsidiary of Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd., a global
clothing manufacturer headquartered in South Korea. It began operations in the fall of 2012; a work force of 20,000 was projected for that year. The eventual workforce was projected to approach 60,000 by 2017 and ultimately 100,000 workers. This would result in an estimated tenfold expansion of population in the area to about 300,000 from its present 30,000. Social and environmental disruption was anticipated as the result of this hastily planned project. contributions by the United States government, and the
Clinton Foundation. As of 2013, 1.7 of the projected 10 megawatts were being supplied by the power plant.
Results Since its opening, factory conditions have become a source of significant criticism, particularly concerning living wages and housing. garment factories across the country, including at Caracol Industrial Park, were not applying the law in late 2013. The numbers of those employed was much smaller than estimated, with only 5,479 full-time employees in 2017, with investments for the park costing about $55,000 USD per job, thirty times 2,900% more than annual salary of each worker. == Communal Sections ==