Date: 23 June 2014

Venue: British American Tobacco’s London office

A high level business conference and networking event took place on the morning of 23^rd June at British American Tobacco (BAT) offices in Central London.  This event, organised and hosted by The Cuba Initiative, together with the Cuban Embassy, included a series of informative presentations aimed at UK investors and businesses interested in new opportunities in Cuba.  The presentations were made by a high level delegation led by the Cuban Vice Minister for Trade Investment and a group of senior officials.  They outlined recent developments in Cuba relating to the new foreign investment law which came into force on May 2014 which substantially improves terms for foreign investors entering Cuba.

Also information was provided about opportunities to invest or work on the new US$900 million port, transshipment and logistics centre at Mariel.  The development of the port will be able to handle the super post panamax vessels which will be transiting the Panama Canal once the third locks are complete and offers a large development zone for assembly and manufacturing.  This event was completely full and testament of the renewed interest in business opportunities in Cuba and the wider region.

The high level event was chaired by Lord Hutton and included presentations by the members of the delegation as follows

• Ileana Nunez, Vice Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment and leader of the delegation
• Deborah Rivas, Director General for Foreign Investment, Ministry for Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX)
• Yanet Vázquez, Deputy Director, The Mariel Special Development Zone
• Celia Labora, Director for International Relations at the Cuban Chamber of Commerce
• Adriana Barceló, Director General, Industrial Management, Ministry for Industry
• Jose Daniel Alonso, Business Director, Ministry for Tourism
• Vivian Hichtman, Director of Regulation and Control, Ministry for Energy and Mines

Copies of the presentations can be found here by clicking on the links below.  Also details of the Havana International Fair in November 2014 can be found here:

Cuba Turism

Energy and Mines

Presentación sobre Ley Inversión

Zona Especial de Desarrollo de Mariel

Ministry of Industry

GENERAL INFORMATION FIHAV 2014

If you would like to find out more about The Cuba Initiative, and its range of activities and services, please contact Chris Bennett @ chris.bennett@stagingcaribbean.wpengage.uk.  Information about membership can also be found on our membership page .