In a key diplomatic step to reboot Haiti’s struggling industrial economy, Haiti’s Minister of Trade and Industry James Monazard held a high-level meeting with United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Deputy Director General Cecilia Ugaz Estrada on July 16, 2026. The discussion took place on the margins of Monazard’s official working visit to Montevideo, Uruguay, marking another milestone in the Haitian government’s ongoing push to deepen institutional cooperation with UNIDO.
The core goal of the bilateral talks was aligning efforts to advance the revitalization of Haiti’s industrial sector, which has faced years of political instability, infrastructure gaps and limited foreign investment. Both sides used the meeting to reaffirm their shared commitment to building a long-term strategic partnership between Haiti’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MCI) and UNIDO, locking in two key actionable initiatives to move the recovery process forward.
First, the partners have agreed to launch a comprehensive technical study that will lay the groundwork for the development of new industrial parks across Haiti’s Great South region. Second, UNIDO will deploy a team of international industry experts to Haiti to participate in the country’s planned Industry Week, scheduled for September 2026, where the experts will provide on-the-ground guidance and technical input.
The targeted technical assistance from UNIDO is designed to bolster the MCI’s ongoing work to develop tangible, scalable solutions for broad-based industrial growth. Planned outcomes include attracting much-needed foreign and domestic investment, strengthening the technical and institutional capacity of Haiti’s national industrial ecosystem, and creating long-term sustainable jobs that can lift local communities out of poverty.
The Montevideo meeting capped off a week of intensive diplomatic activity for Minister Monazard, who had just completed a high-stakes advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. ahead of the South America visit. In Washington, the minister held talks with senior U.S. administration officials to lobby for the renewal of the HOPE/HELP trade legislation, a critical framework that provides duty-free access to the U.S. market for Haitian exports and supports thousands of jobs in the country. Following that mission, Monazard continued his outreach across South America to drum up new investment, speed up industrial recovery, and build the stable economic conditions needed to deliver shared growth to all Haitian citizens.