Holguin moves on as top exhibiting stronghold

The eighth edition of the Holguin Tradeshow opened Monday with the intention of showcasing the tremendous commercial potentials in terms of services and products that this province in eastern Cuba has to offer. The tradeshow comes as a perfect opportunity to amp up cooperation and replace hard-currency imports for the island nation.

Up on a roll since its first edition back in 1997, this year’s Holguin Tradeshow boasts 61 stands scattered in more than 900 square yards where 145 companies from the five eastern provinces, plus Cienfuegos, Havana, Ciego de Avila and Villa Clara, and such countries as France, Germany, Spain, Argentina and Russia, will put their very best items and services on display.

Deisy Rojas, chairwoman of the Provincial Management Council and president of the event’s Organizing Committee, opened the event by welcoming attendants and praising the fact of counting on “a more professional corporate sector fully identified with our revolutionary process, eager to put new products in the market and willing to throw its weight around to give the national economy a new lease on life.”

After Mrs. Rojas’s opening remarks, Alberto Olivera Fis, president of the Provincial People’s Power Assembly, performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony together with Conrado Martinez Corona, president of Cuba’s Convention Bureau. Both high-ranking officials toured the fairgrounds, exchanged views with experts and workers alike, and talked to the press.

Mr. Corona explained there’s a clear intention to boost Holguin as a premiere event and convention area. Despite some real headway made in this field –he said- the province still has a long way to go to reach the “pinnacle of excellence.”

The opening ceremony was presided over by Jorge Cuevas and Sergio Fernandez, members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, alongside writers Pablo Armando Fernandez and Jose Luis Moreno.