Cuba Unveils New Business Opportunities for Foreign Investment

The Foreign Investment Opportunity Portfolio in Cuba was presented before FIHAV 2014 attendees by the island nation’s minister of Foreign Trade Rodrigo Malmierca.

The dossier has been anticipated as the main course of FIHAV 2014 and is no doubt a major step forward in the promotion of new business opportunities opening up for the corporate world.

“We don’t want to improvise, but rather incentivize investment where we need them the most,” Mr. Malmierca said.

The inflow of foreign capital has now ceased to be a complementary element to become an indispensable drive behind the sustainability of the Cuban economic model and its ongoing reforms, moves that might take some $2.5 billion every year, according to the Cuban high-ranking official.

The portfolio features 246 highly feasible projects and estimates are putting the total amount of investments above $8.7 billion. This figure, though, does not include those projects currently underway since the enactment of Act 118 on Foreign Investment in June.

The portfolio has two major provisions: one exclusively dedicated to the Mariel Special Development Zone, and the other one broken down in eleven sectors or fields in which potential investors might pour funds into. Half of those projects are linked to biotechnology.

Cuba is also betting on foreign investment to spur up the energy sector. Right now, 97 percent of power generation in the country is made through oil burning, a situation that must be overturned in coming years by the use of renewable energy sources.

Despite the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, some of the conditions that turn Cuba into an attractive market for foreign businesspeople are the safety and security in the country, its enviable geographical location, a highly-educated population, and the rock-solid ties Cuba has with trade organizations both regionally and internationally.