Diaz-Canel highlights foreign businessmen confidence in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 7 (ACN) The celebration of this XXXIX Havana International Fair (FIHAV 2023) is an act of confidence of the world business community in Cuba, said Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel this Monday, at the Expocuba fairgrounds.

While touring several pavilions, such as those of Spain, Italy, Cubans living abroad, Brazil and Vietnam, Diaz-Canel said that the 39th edition of the event, which will run until November 11, is larger in terms of the number of participants from companies at regional and global level.
At a time like the one the country is currently living through,the fact that the international community keeps relations with Cuba is a sign of support to Cuba, he said

He considered that new business and commercial exchange possibilities are opening up; the Cuban parties will have to contribute a lot with their agility to be able to materialize the business deals signed at the fair, the President emphasized.

This fair is synonymous with massiveness and the diverse presence of Cuban and foreign businessmen, he said and pointed out that Cuba is in a new scenario that opens in economic and commercial matters to the private sector within the country and those residing outside it.

Díaz-Canel also participated in the opening of the pavilion of the Russian Federation, where he coincided with Victor Koronelli, Russian ambassador to the Caribbean nation, who thanked Cuba for allowing the participation of that Eurasian country in FIHAV 2023.

He specified that the pavilion houses more than 20 Russian companies from different areas such as energy, chemical industry, technologies, construction, automotive sector and food production.

This is another sign of the interest of that territory in the Cuban market, as a result of the commitments of the 20th Russian-Cuban International Commission, the ambassador noted.

Koronelli added that the cooperation between the two countries has allowed the inauguration of the electric steel plant of the Antillana de Acero company, the largest plant of its kind in the nation.

Russia is betting on increasing the number of tourists to Cuba -about 200,000 people in a year- as it is an excellent sun and beach destination, the diplomat said, and announced that this will be possible with the reopening of regular flights between Moscow and Havana at the end of this month.

Economic and trade relations between the two countries have been boosted in recent times, confirming the mutual interest in strengthening the ties that already existed at the political level, said Ana Teresita González Fraga, Cuban deputy minister of Foreign Trade and Investment.
This allows, she added, for collaboration in areas such as mining, transport, tourism and agro-industry, which are key to the implementation of the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030.

More than strategic partners, we are allies, concluded the Vice Minister.

FIHAV 2023 was inaugurated on Monday at Expocuba in the presence of Díaz-Canel; Deputy Prime Ministers Ricardo Cabrisas, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, and Alejandro Gil, Minister of Economy; representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the Palco Business Group, governors, official foreign delegations and businessmen.