Announcement of Rehabilitation of Port-au-Prince's Old Market Assisted by IDA Credit of Twenty-One Million US Dollars to Haiti on March 24, 1983

\, •World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A.• Telephone: (202) 477-1234 IDA NEWS RELEASE NO. 83/55 Contact: Ciro Gamarra ¥..arch 24, 19 83 (202) 477-5320 REHABILITATION OF PORT-AU-PRINCE'S OLD MARKET ASSISTED BY IDA CREDIT OF $21 MILLION TO HAITI Jirst Special Fund Operation 'nle old and overcrowded Croix-de-Bossales central market, in downtown Port-au-Prince, the capitol of Haiti, will be rehabilitated with the assistance of IDA. The urban a.evelopment project, the ·first such project to be assisted by IDA in Haiti,,will also include sites and services schemes for the relocation of 1,036 families displaced by the upgrading of the market and £or another 1,371 low-income families in poor neighborhoods of Cap-Haitien and Les Cayes. With an estimated total cost of $23.8 million, the Haitian project will initiate IDA involvement in urban development in Haiti and assist the Haitian government in impro·ving the li viug conditions of the urban poor in the capital and two of its most important cities. • The project will be carried out with the assistance of an $8 million (SDR 7.4 million) on IDA standard terms and $13 million (SDR 12 million) from the Special Fund. This is the first operation from the Special Fund, set up recently to augment IDA's resources. The Special Fund will be administered by IDA. While Haiti is one of the least urbanized countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, its urban growth has been both rapid and heavily concentrated in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where 900,000 of the approximate 1.4 million urban inhabitants are living. The next largest city, Cap-Haitien, with about 65,000 inhabitants, has only one twelfth the population of Port-au-Prince, followed by Gonaives and Les Cayes ~ith 44,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, respectively. With an estimated gross national product per capita of $270 in 1981, Haiti is the poorest country ia the region. Income distribution in Haiti is uneven and three out of four Haitians live in absolute poverty . • G Note: IDA credits are denominated in SDRs (Special Drawing Rights), which are valued on the basis of a "basket" of currencies. The US dollar equivalent of the SDR amount of the IDA credit reflects the exchange rates existing at the time of the negotiation of the credit. •• ~1e ... • · · .1 , .,.,.ix-de-Bc.ssales Market - 2 - --- The Croi.~-de-Bossales market is the si11H I e most important element -ng ;, '• ". the :..:..Yes of t:ihe largest d 1concentratl . b .. 1t of urban poor in the country. • · ·" • ..-nds over a 3. 3-hectare mu P ain etWbo11 th"~ new port and the old downtown tc •' t~illing ~ver into adjacent streets. ,r.z•, The market area includes a retail markbt with some 14,000 merchants and , , 1 ehoppers ~ storage facilities, a major I 11 t:er-urban truck and bus tenninal, ~' • • , ~ ,,,·holesale :::arket which handles more thnn I wo thirds of the food and manu- .. ! 4 ! ' ! ~ d goods =or domestic use in Port-au-Pr I 111.:e. f ( n~ pro:ect will include the construct I 11q of a wholesale market, two .• ,c:·1 and one-. ~pen-air retail markets, an~ h,1~1c services for about 8,200 , A I, t "' a • It i.s expected to be completed in 11 137 • The Crou-de-Bossales market rehabilitHr Ion and expansion require the ton of 5.:.~ dwelling uni ts which have b,·,!11 located on the market grounds over , !t , ..,,n·s, housi..::!g 1,036 families. These faml I Jes will be relocated at a nearby • :. ~ . : : !nthau r=) in the Cite Simone district ~1, that they will not lose their homes · . ~ 11.hood • '!11e project will also prov1ae 1,093 how1lng units, a small market, and a modest ~ty cente::- in Cap-Haitien, in the north,:111 region; and 278 housing units, a ! ty center and a health post in Les Cay,1 :1, in the southern region. , ., :11e project will assist the es tablishme11 t: of an autonomous, city-wide agency, ~ / Autono:::.a de Gestion des Harche's da l 'A I 1·e de Port-au-Prince -- SAGMAP, to • • i: .ind mai:::.~ain all metropolitan markets. The project will also include the .r ~1.Jnal cc:-:-elopment of the Public Social llousing Promotion Company, Enterprise ~· ii de P!'.'c=otion de Logements Sociaux -- l•;PPLS. Proj e::t will substantially improve tlte trading of basic goods for the '.t? ,r the -;=opulation in the capital and, 1.hrough better sanitary conditions, .; ·, •' risk 0£ contamination or disease . ., qt tes 211d services components will 11 rovide housing for a population of • ,ic ·~.'300 a.::.d cover sizeable portions of the demand for low-cost housing in ' ' ·: t ~n nnd :..es Cayes for the period up to 1.985.