Economy
The Havana Reporter. Your news source in Cuba
The Havana Reporter. Your news source in Cuba
The Entrepreneurial Group of the Electronic, Information Technology, Automation and Communication Industry (GELECT in Spanish) participated in the 2nd edition of the Cubaindustria 2016 International Convention for the capture new markets.
Cuba is implementing a development program until 2030 to better exploit its beekeeping productive potential and to develop new products with higher added values.
The signing of five agreements over a six year period between Cuba and the Saudi Arabian Fund for Development shows the interest both have in strengthening trade links, something particularly highlighted by the last two agreements on the development of the Island’s water system.
More than 2,000 participants from 29 countries participated in the second Cuban International Industry Convention and Exhibition, Cubaindustria 2016.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is to allocate some 50 million Euro to help Cuba develop a project to promote development in key areas such as fertilizer and agricultural machinery production.
Cuban light industry authorities have said that deals with foreign companies for the establishment of new joint ventures for the production of footwear, disposable diapers and clothing are being negotiated.
Sugarcane, introduced to Cuba more than 500 years ago, is still extensively used for the production of sugar, energy drinks and other by-products that satisfy important economic and social needs.
The visit by a delegation from the U.S. state of Missouri, led by its governor Jeremiah W. Nixon was an indication of the increasing number of U.S. companies who want to avail of the current trade opportunities in Cuba.
During the recent First Business Forum in the City of Merida in Yucatan, Cuban and Mexican authorities stated their willingness to strengthen collaboration and strategic alliances in the tourism sector.
The good state of inter-governmental relations and the opportunities to broaden economic and trade links, since 2014 in particular, are manifest in the willingness of both Cuba and Japan to extend and deepen bilateral ties.
The Cuban-Spanish Joint Venture, that deals with everything related to water management and supply in Varadero, is currently providing an excellent service to the Cuban resort and nearby communities and is showing a significant profit margin.
One of six agreements signed between Cuba and Vietnam in September 2015 will take effect next year with the opening of two factories, one for producing laundry soap and the other making disposable diapers, both working with one of the leading companies in the Vietnamese industrial sector: Thai Binh.
Quality, efficiency and fast loading/ unloading services should characterize the new terminal being built at the Guillermón Moncada Harbor in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
Having become one of the planets most in vogue places for politicians, economists, business people and world culture and fashion personalities, an increase in the number of airline companies flying state of the art aircraft to Cuba comes as no surprise.
Cuba and Spain signed an accord in Havana on the planning and management of land, sea, rail and air transport.
A new gas pipeline is expected to be inaugurated in western Cuba in late August, as part of investments in the oil sector with views to obtaining greater economic and environmental improvements for the country.
Cuban scientists have brought beyond the laboratory test phase new biomaterial composites for the regeneration of bone tissue, which are, because of the issue of ageing populations, the subject of much international interest.
Cuba is to undertake the construction of 34 small hydro- electric plants with financial support of almost 30 million dollars from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
The use of Information and Communications Technologies is being expanded to different agricultural spheres in Cuba, as it becomes a pressing need for the sustainable development of this vital sector.
Forecasts for the sector indicate that through the introduction of better technology and enhanced plantation on the western, central and eastern plains to satisfy domestic demand and increase exports, Cuba will produce in excess of 23,000 tons of coffee by 2020.
BioCubaFarma, the entity that connects the Cuban biotechnology industry with pharmaceutics, is currently developing 450 research projects to enlarge the country’s possibilities to produce medicines, replace imports and enhance the portfolio of exporting products.
The most positive results of the XI International Construction Fair 2016 (Fecons in Spanish) were the contacts and exchanges with potential foreign investors regarding the undertaking of projects in tourism, industry and infrastructure.
Even though the reestablishment of bilateral relations between Havana and Washington has facilitated a series of measures that favor trade links, the still enforced economic, commercial and financial blockade that the White House has imposed on Cuba since 1960 is the greatest obstacle to normalization and progress.
The memorandum of understanding signed recently in the field of agricultural health during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba paved the way for starting cooperation relations that will be the basis for attaining progress in trade, productivity and food security between the two countries.
Coveted by those to whom it is denied and disputed by those who would steal its identity, Havana Club is Cuba’s most globally recognized rum and personifies the supremacy of the Cuban rum tradition.
The Cuban nickel industry is the object of investments worth millions required in order to reduce production costs, in particular through the reduction of energy consumption, in the face of international competition.
NEW YORK.- The headquarters of the Nasdaq stock market located in this North American cosmopolitan city hosted the Second Cuba Opportunity Summit; a forum organized by Wharton Business School in order to bring the North American business sector up to date with the business possibilities on the island.
The rapprochement process that has been taking place between Cuba and the United States after the announcement of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations was made on December 17, 2014, is undoubtedly one of the events that has given rise to many questions among Cubans and people from around the world.
Public Funds and businesses with foreign companies characterize the development of mining activities in Cuba for prospecting led, zinc, gold, calcium carbonate and other important minerals for export and local consumption.
HAVANA.- In an auditorium filled by members of the U.S. business community, Cuban industrial state company executives and associates with foreign investment capital, members of cooperatives, entrepreneurs from the emerging national private and self-employed sector, U.S president Barack Obama declared that the best way to help the Cuban people was to lift the blockade.
Significant investments with foreign capital are likely to be materialized in Cuba this year, with the objective of making the national industry more dynamic and replacing large volumes of imports.
Economic ties between Cuba and Australia are likely to be expanded in the sectors of renewable energy, agriculture, livestock, pharmaceutics, mining and oil prospecting, as analyzed by government authorities from the two countries.
The visit to Cuba of Austrian president, Heinz Fischer, who was accompanied by a large business delegation, marked an important point in the development of commercial and financial relations and the future promotion of investments.
The visit to Cuba of Austrian president, Heinz Fischer, who was accompanied by a large business delegation, marked an important point in the development of commercial and financial relations and the future promotion of investments.
The ties that bind Cuba and Russia together have been strengthened by the granting of credit worth up to 1 billion, 2 hundred million euros, to finance a project to amplify electricity generation through the incorporation of 800 megawatts into the electrical energy system in Cuba between 2022 and 2024.
With the passing of the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM in Spanish) Law Decree 313 and its complimentary regulations in 2013, Cuba opened investment possibilities at the enclave, 45km west of Havana, to the world. Profood Service S.A., fully funded by Spanish capital, embraced the opportunity.
Unseasonal rainfall and the late arrival of winter are mostly to blame for the harm caused – principally to industrial sugar yields and cane gathering activities --to the 2015/16 Cuban sugar cane harvest.
The International Agriculture and Livestock Fair, FIAGROP 2016, scheduled for March 12-20 at Havana’s Rancho Boyeros fairgrounds, is set to offer more rodeo competitions and cattle shows and has a particularly busy commercial and business agenda.
The fuel content of the solar radiation Cuba receives in a day is greater than the amount of oil consumed by the country in five years, according to studies conducted by the government to make the best use of renewable energy sources.
In what experts consider to be an indication of how attractive the potential of the tourist market in Cuba is; between February 1-3 this year, one hundred U.S. business people representing 50 wine cellars, offered a first-ever seminar on Californian wines in Cuba’s Palace of Conventions.
The biggest challenge for Latin America today is to return to the path of economic development, underpinning productive diversification and technological innovation, said the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), Alicia Bárcena.
The Water Education Istitution of Holland and UNESCO (Unesco – IHE in Spanish) are cooperating with the Cuban aquaculture industry, in the execution of a claria (catfish) raising project, using a locally produced feed, which has just been satisfactorily evaluated on the basis of fish sizes in excess of 500 grams.
The presence of the Odebrecht company in more than 21 countries and across a broad range of business sectors that offer integrated, innovative and practical solutions, is an indication of why the Brazilian group have an interest in contributing to the development of their host nations.
As 2015 drew to a close, certain newsworthy events gave a fresh impulse to Cuba’s global flight connections and it’s tourism industry, currently working to attract even more visitors and to improve the quality and comfort of services offered, of which flight connections play an important role.
Univeler, one of the largest companies of its type in the world, have come back to Cuba to launch a joint venture in the manufacture of hygiene, toiletry and household cleaning products with the benefits of the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM in Spanish).
Participants in a specialized international conference agreed that agroecology is an essential component for the attainment of food sovereignty and global sustainable development.
The Havana Club International S.A. (HCI) company’s San Jose de las Lajas rum factory in western Cuba is highly efficient, having maintained production targets to within 99.7% of those set by client demand during it’s nine year history, according to director of operations, Ernesto Castresana.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has registered interest in the growth of Cuban tourism, referring to it in one of their most recent publications which dealt with nations who are increasing management capacity in what is referred to as the “smokeless” industry.
Known as the Caribbean Queen, Cuba’s lobster has become the country’s top seafood export product so far this year, with total exports of fish and seafood products likely to account for $70 million by the end of the year, said Esther María Alejo, the general director of Caribex import and export company.
HAVANA._ A recent report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) revealed that, for the first time since 2009, the unemployment rate in the region rose from one year to another.
HAVANA.- Set to become the principal sea port in both Cuba and the Caribbean and an important regional logistical center, the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM in Spanish) today encompasses one of the primary incentives for foreign investment in Cuba.
The 32nd edition of Havana’s International Trade Fair, FIHAV 2015, which was attended by 2000 businesspeople from more than 70 countries, with an exhibition area of 22,700 square meters, was rated as an extraordinary event by important figures attending the fair in the Cuban capital.
The Cuba-U.S. Business Council launched on September 25 in Washington, has before it a great task: to work in order to normalize bilateral trade relations, said Orlando Hernández Guillén, president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce.
Cuba and Vietnam have reinforced agricultural ties through the continuation of a program to develop grains of a high quality and adaptable to challenges posed by climate change.
Cuba and Argentina have begun a new phase of cooperation with the signing of various agreements in the fields of agriculture, livestock and rural development, with trade, business and technical contracts also contributing to further expand bilateral collaboration.
Nature tourism is going strong among those who visit Cuba, where one can find exceptional sea bottoms, mountains with a large variety of endemic flora and fauna, cave systems with underground rivers, and landscapes that go from valleys to semi desert lands and rainforests.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has implemented a project in Cuba for increasing the production of freshwater fish by improving their genes.
The number of business people interested in investing in Cuba continues to grow every year. That reality is mainly owed to the potentialities that exist in different sectors and to the attractive future offered to investors in Cuba.
The Panamanian president, Juan Carlos Valera, ratified at the closing of an enterprise forum in Havana his nation’s decision to stand alongside Cuba until justice has been attained by the lifting of the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed for an excess of 50 years on the island by the U.S.
Experts’ predictions of an imminent hell in the world’s economy and markets currently follow the uncertainty unleashed by the generalized fall of the stock exchange and raw materials in the last few weeks.
A dozen enterprises of Belgium and Luxemburg met with their Cuban peers to explore commercial, collaboration and investment opportunities now open to foreign capital in Cuba.
The Country’s Program (El Programa del Pais) 2015-2018 will benefit some 900,000 people in seven Cuban provinces in a mission which hopes to strengthen ties with social, local and national protection systems with priority held in food and nutrition safety.
New and attractive facilities from the Cuban banking system are now at the disposal of self-employed businesses, even without the need to resort to commercial offices, modality introduced and in progress by the Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA).
Fitomas-M, a sugar cane ripener developed in Cuba, used to accelerate the ripening process, is today a firm friend of those cultivating this crop and according to experts here in the capital, it contributes to increased sugar yields per area.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has revealed that the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the region fell by 16 percent in 2014.
Every year hundreds of Cuban students graduate from the universitylevel computer engineering course.
The cooperation project started by Cuba and Kuwait in the hydraulic sector at the beginning of the past decade continues to bear its fruits, as recently demonstrated by the signing of three agreements intended to support repair works of the aqueduct and sewage system in Havana.
The international financial scenario, marked by pressures on the developed world, reveals new front line participants that are creating alternatives to longstanding multilateral institutions.
The plans of Cuba’s Ministry of Transport (MITRANS) to modernize airport facilities will start with extension works on Terminal 3 at Havana’s Jose Martí International Airport.
Cuba and Italy pledged to work together to strengthen bilateral relations and highlighted areas of common interest in the context of a recent visit by Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
The U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba is working intensely for the lifting of the blockade against the island, according to the coalition´s president, Devry Boughner.
An added value asset of the February 2015 edition of the Habano Festival will be the teaching and learning about how cigars are made and what their most important characteristics are.
Due to the high cost of investment in production and extraction infrastructure, the oil industry is by necessity included on the list of opportunities that Cuba is offering to investors who might be interested in sharing both risk and dividend, in an area of vast potential as verified by land and marine geological studies.
During 2014 Cuba continued to deploy strategies driven by the updating of the national economic and social model which have created the requisite conditions for significant advancement in 2015 and which should put a halt to the decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Nicaragua has been celebrating the materialization of this long cherished dream since the construction of the canal started on last December 22: the work promises to become a valuable commercial and shipping waterway.
The creation of the Mariel Special Development Zone and the passing last March of a new Foreign Investment Law means that there are excellent investment opportunities in Cuba. Among the areas of interest, Cuban industry ranks as one of the sectors with the most potential and best opportunities for foreign investors.