Foreign Investment: 57 Priority Sector Projects in Negotiations

Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX) reported that 57 priority sector projects with foreign investment are currently being negotiated in prioritized sectors of the economy. The negotiations, valued at almost $5 billion dollars, could be completed before August of next year.

“If we work well and make an effort, we have the conditions to attract more foreign capital despite the existing difficulties,” the minister said to the Committee on Economic Affairs, where the follow-up to the report presented by MINCEX to Parliament last December was discussed.

“Removing the blockade is not in our hands,” which is why, “we must focus on the obstacles that depend on us, including delays in procedures and lack of preparation in the negotiating groups,” said Malmierca.

Today, about seven foreign investment projects linked to forms of non-state management are being studied, and the relevance of approving businesses in domestic trade is analyzed, he said.

On the One-stop shop, a new online system to improve the process of application and licensing to potential investors, he said that work is being done to make it work at the municipal level and that all processes are digitized.

Last December, Malmierca acknowledged that “despite the actions carried out, the desired results have not been achieved” in the law’s application on foreign investment in force since 2014.

During 2020 and 2021; only 47 new businesses had been approved, and only 25 of those had been incorporated.

As of the end of last year, 285 new businesses were approved in Cuba. Forty-nine of these are in the Mariel Special Development Zone, and 29 re-investments.

Information source: Cuba Debate