Cuba presents new foreign investment portfolio

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 1 (acn) Cuban Minister Rodrigo Malmierca presented the Foreign Investment Portfolio 2016-2017 during the opening ceremony of the First Investment Forum at the Expocuba fairgrounds.

The Portfolio, the third of its kind, comprises 395 projects for a grand total of 9.5 billion dollars, distributed in 15 sectors of the Cuban economy, Malmierca explained.
Under the premise that direct foreign investment (DFI) is essential for the development of Cuba, this latest issue includes 120 new projects, compared to last year´s.
The Minister added that 24 of these opportunities will be located in the Mariel Special Development Zone, while the others are scattered through all Cuban regions, to achieve an even development throughout the country.
He also mentioned a series of modifications to the policies for foreign investment in several sectors of the Cuban economy, specially related to those related to the development of infrastructure.
Among the novelties of this portfolio is the permission to non-agricultural cooperatives to, directly or not,participate in DFI projects, with or without the association with Cuban state institutions.
He said the banking and financial sector was included this time to allow Cuba access to financing sources, as well as management techniques and analysis of information, and to new baking instruments and international markets