Cuba Promotes Itself by Citing Partnership with Brazil

04/10/2015 - 10h54

While an 180-page brochure that shows the benefits of investing in Cuba was being distributed to the public, the Minister of Foreign Trade of the island, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, invited businessmen to visit and invest resources in the country.

He cited Mariel port, built by Odebrecht, a Brazilian engineering company, with funding from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), as an example.

"We are in a new phase and we are broadening our view of the role of foreign investment," the minister said, in the business summit organized by the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) parallel to the Summit of the Americas in Panama City.

"Today we recognize that it is an active and integral component for growth."

Cuba's pro-market rhetoric of the nominally communist island, has intensified since the news of the diplomatic rapprochement with the US, last December.

In addition to Mariel port, Malmierca Díaz mentioned as positive examples, the participation of other countries in infrastructure works on the island as well as on the Cienfuegos oil refinery, a partnership with Venezuela.

"We created the Mariel development zone around the harbor, with an excellent geographical location, near the airport, university, all in a strategic region in the Caribbean."

He presented a study of 246 projects in various sectors (agriculture, the pharmaceutical industry, tourism and energy, among others) that are open to investment.

"We offer scientific potential, manpower, infrastructure and a great location."

He also said that Cuba has received delegations of American businessmen and even said that Cuba has "a desire to continue contributing to the normalization of relations with the US."

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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	Marlene Bergamo - 2.jan.2015/Folhapress
	Cuba's pro-market rhetoric of the nominally communist island, has intensified since the diplomatic rapprochement with the US