01 December 2025

Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment has said that Cuba will introduce shortly a series of measures designed to revitalise foreign investment in Cuba.

Speaking at the opening of the Eighth Investment Forum held during the Havana International Fair (FIHAV 2025), Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva, outlined what he described as a new and innovative approach linked to government’s recently updated macro-economic reform programme (See Cuba Briefings 17 and 24 November 2025).

Pérez-Oliva, who was recently promoted and has since taken a much higher public profile nationally, outlined in his remarks changes that are expected to be implemented shortly through new regulations.

The new approach, the Minister told existing and potential investors, will see a differentiated framework for foreign investors, enabling them to operate, according to need, in both local and foreign currency. The planned measures are to be linked to the partial dollarisation of the economy and the need for foreign investments to be focussed on obtaining external sources of income, either through exports or by being aligned to segments of the domestic market that generate foreign currency.

In his remarks Pérez-Oliva said that a further modification under consideration is a change in the way businesses involving foreign capital are treated in the country’s economic planning. From now on, he said, only dividends from the Cuban side and foreign currency earnings from related Cuban entities will be considered when discussing new foreign investments, enabling greater flexibility compared to previous approaches.

The idea now, the Minister said, is to extend Cuba’s experience of mixed-capital companies that “have achieved the best results in history” so that enterprises operate with greater dynamism, confidence, and financial autonomy.

In addition, he noted, existing legislation will be activated to enable companies wishing to establish bank accounts abroad, to do so. This is now seen, he said, as a tool that can complement their operations and make their sources of foreign currency income more flexible, helping them to cope with the effects of the US embargo.

In his remarks the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed that, as part of the process of partial dollarisation, foreign currency pricing will be established in some sectors for goods and services. These tariffs, he stated, will be more competitive and more realistic than current exchange market options.

Potentially far-reaching changes on underutilised national assets

In his address Pérez-Oliva announced that government is to make underutilised national assets and production facilities available to foreign investors. This would enable them, he said, to invest, operate, and profit, with the possibility that after an agreed-upon period the facility will revert to the State. The objective, he said, is to allow “foreign investors to participate more actively in the reactivation of productive activity in our country.” If the idea is commercially viable, the potentially far-reaching decision is expected to be of interest to foreign investors in Russia, China and elsewhere who have expressed an interest in involvement in failing sectors of the Cuban economy including sugar, power generation, and the railways.

The deputy prime minister also revealed that government will promote foreign investment in the banking and financial sector and that a previous decision to create “special development zones” remains in place. Such zones, he said, while not necessarily as extensive as the Mariel Special Economic Development Zone (ZEDM), could be smaller and dedicated to specific activities such as real estate or technology parks, and have more flexible special regulations to stimulate their development.

In relation to the tourism sector, Pérez-Oliva confirmed that foreign investors leasing operational hotel facilities will “automatically be established as a foreign investor under the category of a wholly foreign-owned enterprise,” will benefit from Cuba’s Foreign Investment Law, and have the right to engage in foreign trade. The objective, he said, is that, once the contract is awarded, “the company can begin managing the facility within 60 days, avoiding slower, traditional procedures.”

Turning to the concerns of potential investors relating to the employment of the Cuban workforce, the Minister said that the focus will be on providing greater flexibility. Although “the (Cuban) employer is expected to participate in the selection process …. the final hiring decision will be made by the investor, either directly or through the employer,” he told the Forum.” Pérez-Oliva additionally noted that it will in future be possible to pay bonuses in foreign currency, charged against profits, through bank transfers provided the company generates external income.

Regarding operational matters, the Deputy Prime Minister of MINCEX stated that in future “any type of foreign investment can wholesale its products and services to any domestic economic actor with the capacity to pay.” “There are no restrictions of any kind… there are no obstacles, nothing prohibiting it,” he emphasised.

In addition, he stated, foreign investments will have direct and unrestricted access to purchasing fuel in foreign currency, and in cases of unavailability, “investors will be permitted to directly import the fuel they require.”

Approval process for foreign investment to be simplified

Turning to the process of approving foreign investments, Pérez-Oliva said that the Cuban government remained committed to implementing “simpler, more agile and more transparent processes for foreign investors.” As a part of this new approach, he announced:

• The previous requirement that investors submit a feasibility study for the approval of a new business, will be replaced by the submission of a business plan. The new requirement will require a projection of the investor’s expectations for their proposal.

• “Before starting any business relationship an objective analysis will be undertaken to ensure that the proposal corresponds to the country’s development goals.

• A more flexible approach will be applied to incorporation documents. While the requirement for incorporation documents and commercial certification for foreign companies will remain, specific additional documents will only be requested when the business model requires it for technical reasons.

• The validity of appraisals of state assets (such as land or infrastructure) will be extended to more than one year to speed up processes that were previously delayed by the expiration of such valuations.

• The institutional evaluation process will be speeded up with the Evaluation Commission reducing its timeframe for completing a process from 15 to 7 days. Additionally, the principle of “positive silence” will be applied, meaning “that if a state agency does not respond within the established timeframe, it will be assumed to agree with the proposal.”

New regulations expected early next year

Subsequently, Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Yanet Vazquez, confirmed that some of the measures announced will entail modifications to current legislation, and a new decree law will be issued and a MINCEX joint resolution updated. Confirming to the media that work is underway on this and while other aspects of what was announced will be implemented using current regulations, she said that “more structural and profound changes will be enshrined in a new Foreign Investment Law. This is expected to be presented to the National Assembly when it meets in December

According to Cuban officials, the island currently has 376 businesses with foreign capital from 40 countries, 56 of which are located in the ZEDM. In 2025, 32 new investments from 13 countries were approved involving US$1.1 bn in committed capital, of which 10 were approved through new, simpler, and more streamlined procedures, managed directly by heads of state agencies.

01 December 2025, Issue 1304

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