Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year

He is the man who build the bus and call it "Haitian Pride", symbolic, Jean Paul Coutard.

In May 2006, when President René Préval was taking oath of his presidency, Coutard felt determined to make his dream come true. He took this as a challenge. His first step in achieving his dream was to win a scholarship from Canada to learn coach design. While studying in Canada, he took a part time job. He used his earnings to import various body parts from the UK, Australia and Canada. He waited a long time to find the right time to launch his dream. Following the 2010 earthquake, he returned home and began production with his family firm, 'Coutard Motors'. On 22 August 2013, his dream came true. The first prototype bus made in Haiti was presented at the Metropolitan Industrial Park SONAPI in the presence of several ministers and members of the Government.

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Here is a picture of the first bus prototype Made in Haiti by Jean-Paul Coutard.

As part of luxury and comfort, it is equipped with 54 reclining seats, televisions, sound system, custom lamps and sanitary facilities. Once an assembly plant is established, the cost of the new production will be much less.

Earlier to the 'Haitian Pride', transport system in Haiti was very much inadequate-- when it was available--was prohibitively expensive for most citizens. During the inauguration of Rene Preval, the buses used for the occasion were all imported from the Dominican Republic. Jean Paul Coutard took this as a national insult, because he felt that his country must not be so poor and unproductive that it could not even produce its bare essentials. He inherited a love for motor mechanism from his father who was a commercial truck driver.

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The founder of the organization APLADEM, Uzale Remay, has been nominated Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year 2014

Uzale Remay, founder of APLADEM, was awarded the prize of the 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Digicel Foundation. The tradition of awarding those who survive Haiti's tough business climate to make successful businesses from the ground up began five years, when Remay's company, which she started in Jacmel, was 20 years old. She began her company after witnessing the waste of fruit produce in her community. She made contact with the Ministry of Agriculture and worked out a system that allowed for the formation of a fruit transformation process, which proved very profitable and resourceful.

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