Targeting foreign investment in the country

Cuba has since this week been hosting a crucial trade summit wooing foreign investors to the Caribbean communist ruled island, which is in dire need of foreign investments.

Hundreds of foreign entrepreneurs have been gathering in the capital, Havana for the business conference geared at attracting foreign investment. As of Tuesday (November 15), as many as 30 investment proposals worth more than US$400 million were approved by the Cuban government.

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The event, which ended yesterday (November 18) welcomed as many as 400 companies representing more than 60 countries around the globe.

The island recently cut its economic growth forecast for 2022 from four per cent to two per cent after analysts estimated that the country’s economic output had declined 9.8 per cent since 2019.

Cuba is reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis, with food and medicine shortages worsening and inflation rising. Though the communist administration blames COVID-19 and US sanctions for its economic downturn, economists are increasingly asking it to open up the domestic market to foreign players.

The government seems to be conceding to some of the demands. It issued business licenses to more than 550 small and medium entrepreneurs over the past year.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero in his inaugural speech at the investment summit commented, “we have to banish all that unnecessary bureaucracy and generate new opportunities that are attractive to foreign businessmen”.