Willbes in Haiti

completed

The proposed project is to support Willbes Haiti’s 2014-2015 investment program. This includes the expansion of Willbes Haiti’s existing apparel production (cutting and sewing) facility and working capital. The sewing plant is expected to add up to [28] production lines to the existing 42, with an annual capacity of about 1,500,000 dozen pieces, through expansion & refurbishment of Willbes Haiti’s existing operations & factory buildings in the SONAPI industrial park in Port-au-Prince. The Project is expected to increase employment by approximately 1,000 people in Haiti by 2015.Willbes Haiti was established in 2001 and is the Haitian subsidiary of The Willbes & Company (“Willbes”) a leading South-Korean producer of ready-made apparel. This expansion will help the Company and Haitian workers benefit from the opportunity presented by the HELP Act which grants Haitian apparel duty-free entry to the United States and allows apparel factories relatively flexible use of third-country materials in production (expiring 2020).While all Performance Standards are applicable to this investment, IFC’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investment will have impacts which must be managed in a manner consistent with the following Performance Standards:Performance Standard (PS) 1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems;PS2: Labor and Working Conditions;PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement.The proposed project will be executed in existing factory buildings, some already occupied by Willbes Haiti with others being vacant after the previous tenants ceased operations. There are no communities within the areas of influence of the project, the project does not require land acquisition or have impacts on biodiversity conservation, nor are indigenous peoples or cultural heritage present in the project area. For these reasons issues, referenced by other Performance Standards are not anticipated in this project.