Diversification of industry is a part of Cuba’s plans for the future, which includes a more robust private sector and opportunities for foreign investment. Foreign Trade Minister, Rodrigo Malmierca, unveiled ready-made investment opportunities, officially called “the portfolio”, at the 33rd annual Havana International Fair (FIHAV) and explained that:
[the] “private sector, cooperatives, and other forms of property and management, have a space within our future development model … ‘Under no circumstance, even without the embargo, do we want to go back to being dependent on one market’”.
The portfolio consists of 326 projects ranging from the production of rum to an entirely new venture creating high definition, pay-per-view television; opportunities in healthcare, tourism, transportation, construction, agriculture and renewable energy are on the table. Forty of the 246 projects advertised on last year’s wish list are in “advanced negotiations” and have been removed from this year’s portfolio, Malmierca said. This year’s catalogue has 80 more projects than last year’s, but the total value is $500 million less. Under a new investment law approved last year, the projects represent an attempt to bring in at least U.S.$2 billion in foreign direct investment, per year; Cuba has signed 36 deals so far, including six at the Special Development Zone around the Port of Mariel. Malmierca is promoting the idea that communist Cuba has a small but growing private sector, part of an effort to modernize the Country.
To read more about renewable energy in Cuba, click here.
