Cuba Briefing
The Caribbean Council's Exclusive Publication on Cuba

The Cuba Briefing is your news and insight resource for the latest developments in Cuba.

Published since the mid-1990s, Cuba Briefing is an unparalleled resource of detailed analysis on economic, social and political developments going on inside Cuba including analysis on the Cuban government’s priorities and policy developments towards foreign investors, economic reform, and the growth of the private sector.

Cuba Briefing is produced on a weekly basis by David Jessop, the director and founder of the Cuba Initiative and Non-Executive Director of the Caribbean Council, providing expert insight and a longer term lens on week-to-week developments in the country.

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Leading Articles Featured in Cuba Briefing

18th March 2023

The outline of a possible approach to unifying Cuba’s multiple foreign exchange rates and addressing dollarisation has been published in Granma. The much-needed measure is widely believed to be the key determinant in the success or failure of government’s macroeconomic stabilisation reform package. (See Cuba Briefing 2 January 2024).

In a second commentary in a month to be published in the Communist party’s official publication by Joel Marill, an economist specialising in Strategic Macroeconomic Projections at the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), he argues that because the price of currencies is transversal, addressing exchange rate policy in the short term is vital.

Marill writes that the issue forms an important part of the internal debate that is continuing in relation to the package of reform measures agreed in December as necessary to rectify past mistakes and create the conditions for future economic growth.

These discussions, he suggests, are in part focussed on “the implications of an official exchange rate of US$1 to CUP24 and another at US$1 to CUP120” (the Cadeca rate); both of which he describes as  “clearly disconnected from the economic reality” of the informal market (currently at US$1 to CUP325). This he suggests, needs to be “formalised” and used “to stimulate national production and macroeconomic stabilisation.”

To this end he proposes a solution requiring “correct management” and recognition that it will be  “one of the most complex transformations to undertake, in a scenario of currency restrictions and internal macroeconomic imbalances.”

Marill goes on to note that the two official exchange rates mean that national or foreign companies cannot directly access foreign currency. Instead, they must use a “complex and mostly inefficient centralised allocation mechanism” to legally exchange  CUP “which overvalues the Cuban peso.”  This he writes, severely impacts the export sector, limiting its ability to expand production, employment, and to create fresh foreign exchange.

By contrast, Marill argues, the informal exchange market used by the non-state sector and the Cuban population, “offers more flexible access to currency” at high prices, but is based on speculation and uncertainty, and excludes state and mixed companies.

To remedy this, the MEP economist proposes in the short-term the creation of a flexible scheme providing direct and legal access to foreign exchange for MSMEs, and state and mixed companies. This he suggests should be followed in the medium term by an approach that has as its strategic objective the gradual convergence and unification of the exchange rate “through successive iterations.”  An approach, he believes, that would eventually enable the recovery of the “full sovereignty of the peso as the single currency” for internal transactions, creating also a single exchange rate for all external operations.

To achieve this far from easy sequencing and objective, he proposes “first, the relaunch of the official exchange market and, subsequently, the slow devaluation of the official exchange rate.”  He also recommends that the informal exchange market be addressed by “the redirection” of the flows involved towards the formal financial system.

Although an institutionally complex task, he suggests that this could be achieved through three actions:

  • The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) setting an equilibrium exchange rate that is regularly modified by the movement in the supply and demand for the currencies the financial system receives and by underlying market conditions
  • Providing foreign currency through the financial system to those who presently operate in the informal market
  • And then, when foreign currency flows are oriented towards the formal financial system, granting state-owned companies gradual access to this market based on exports and the capture of foreign currency earnings in the financial system. 

Marell recognises that there are risks attached in relation to money supply, and that there would be constant pressure for the Central Bank to depreciate the exchange rate. He suggests, however, that the monetary and fiscal transformation accompanying the opening of an official exchange market would enable the changes required to deliver the country’s macroeconomic stabilisation programme.

No alternative commentaries have so far appeared in Granma. Both by Marell were published after the appointment  was announced on 2 February of Joaquín Alonso, the Minister President of the Central Bank, as the new Minister of Economy and Planning. Details of Marell’s earlier commentary on the macroeconomic stabilisation process can be found in Cuba Briefing19 February 2024.

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo: cubaniatravel.com

4th March 2024

Jorge Pérez, the Commercial Vice President of Habanos SA, Cuba’s principal tobacco exporter, has said that sales of the joint venture’s cigars rose by 31% to US$721mn in 2023.  He was speaking in Havana during the twenty fourth annual Habano Festival which this year  was attended by more than 2,900 participants from 108 countries.

The growth, according to other Habanos executives, largely reflected market recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing demand globally for “limited and exclusive” high end editions.  It also responded, they said, to strong growth in global demand in the luxury market for premium cigars.

Speaking to the media in the margins of the festival, José María López, Habanos’ Vice President for Development, said that the outcome reflected the strong positioning strategy that had been developed for the company’s brands, its policy of permanent innovation including the launch of 31 new products, and improvements to its supply chain. By value, he said, the company’s most important market was China, followed by Spain, Switzerland, Germany, and the UK. In the Americas the principal markets were Mexico, Canada, and Cuba itself. Habanos sales by region were Europe (56%), followed by Asia-Pacific (21%), the Americas excluding the US (13%), and  Africa and the Middle East (10%).

Separately, Luis Blanco, the Agricultural Director of the Tabacuba business group, confirmed that the present planting campaign for the 2024-25 harvest will see about 14,000 hectares planted from which some 20,000 tons of tobacco will be obtained, guaranteeing the industry’s production plans for 2025. He said that the province of Pinar del Río, Cuba’s largest producer, will  plant 10,200 hectares of tobacco, with yields expected to be between 1.37 and 1.4 tons per hectare. In the case of covered tobacco from which the best leaf comes for Cuba’s premium cigars, he confirmed there are no problems with planting.

As reported previously (Cuba Briefing 19 February 2024) to try to achieve the optimum outcome, Tabacuba is now concentrating on having farmers with the best historical results plant in the best soil in the Vueltabajo tobacco massif. In mid-February Granma quoted a local official as saying that the supplies and fuel necessary for growers to conclude the campaign had been received. It additionally quoted Tabacuba as indicating that full recovery of the industry’s infrastructure will take at least two years with the 2024-2025 harvest envisaging 14,000 ha under tobacco, a figure still below that when Hurricane Ian crossed the Western end of Cuba in 2022. Farmers not able to plant tobacco are being encouraged to engage with a Tabacuba programme to plant other crops.

Habanos SA is a 50/50 joint venture between the Cuban state and Asia Uni Corp, a BVI registered company reportedly bringing together a consortium of Asian investors.

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo by: www.cigaraficionado.com

12th February 2024

Cuba’s Council of State has appointed Joaquín Alonso, the Minister-President of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), as Minister of Economy and Planning, removing Alejandro Gil from the post.

The decision to appoint Alonso and make other changes was revealed in a Council of State declaration on 2 February, published the following day in Granma under the minimal headline ‘Council of State approved cadre movements.’

Just days before, on 29 January as Minister, Gil had outlined to the Council of Ministers the timetable for implementing approved policy reforms intended to restore economic growth (Cuba Briefing 5 February 2024).

The declaration said that Gil, would be released from his responsibilities as both Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning. The decision was taken, it said, with the prior approval of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and on the proposal of President Díaz-Canel.

Radio Havana reported that the decision related to “movements of cadres in portfolios of great economic impact.”

Alonso will be replaced by Juana Lilia Delgado as Minister President of the BCC.  Delgado has previously been Director of Operations and General Director of Treasury at the BCC, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Economy and Planning, and worked at Cuba’s Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development.

Alonso, who is 60, reportedly accumulated extensive management experience during his time at the National Bank of Cuba, Banco Popular de Ahorro, Cubalse Commerce and Services Corporation, the non-banking financial institution Casas de Cambio SA, and most recently as Minister President of the Central Bank of Cuba. He also served as provincial vice president of the Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba.

In a further change, Dr Eduardo Martinez, President of Cuba’s highly successful BioCubaFarma business group, has been appointed Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, in place of  Elba Pérez who had held the position for  over 11 years. Dr Martinez, a deputy to the National Assembly, is respected for the innovative work he led on the development and production of Cuba’s pentavalent vaccine and the national role he played during the fight against COVID 19. 

It was also announced that Alberto López, the Governor of the province of Villa Clara and a National Assembly Deputy, has been appointed as Minister of the Food Industry, replacing Manuel Santiago Sobrino. 

The Council of State noted that “all the colleagues released from their respective positions were recognised for their effort and dedication in carrying out such high responsibilities and in the coming days they will be assigned new missions.”

Although there has been no further official comment on the decision to remove Gil, speculation continues as to whether it relates to the sudden decision in late January to delay at the eleventh hour the implementation of fuel and transport price rises announced in December. The increases formed a key part of an integrated group of measures intended to rectify past mistakes and generate renewed growth.

It is not now clear whether the overall package of measures agreed to late last year will be implemented within the timetable planned. They were first announced by the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, in December, although at the time Cuba’s President cautioned that they should only be introduced gradually due to their sensitive nature.

In an apparent expression of concern about the country’s economic and social fragility, and in response to many Cubans’ doubts about the impact of the proposed reforms, Díaz-Canel stressed at that time the need for the new policies to be implemented with great sensitivity. Ministers and government, he said, “must constantly study impacts, states of opinion, and make the necessary corrections.” (Cuba Briefing 2 January 2024).

In recent weeksformer President Raul Castro, PresidentDíaz-Canel, and the Secretary of the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party, Roberto Morales, have all stressed “the decisive importance” of maintaining national unity this year. (Cuba Briefing 8 January 2024).

Gil’s departure from office additionally coincides with government’s recent admission that the 2021 economic ordering task failed, surging inflation, and a growing and huge variance between the official and street rate for the Cuban Peso.

Following his replacement as Minister of the Economy and Planning, Gil noted on X in a tweet addressed to President Díaz-Canel: “It has been a pride and an honour to work alongside you in the service of our people and our Revolution. As always, I’m at your command, to continue, “ to which Díaz-Canel replied by sending a “Grateful hug” to all those replaced, noting that “they gave their energies in very hard years for the country” and wishing success to the new appointees.

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo: Reuters/Amr Alfiky

5th February 2024

Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil, Cuba’s Minister of the Economy and Planning, has said that the Cuban government expects this month to bring forward measures to control Cuba’s increasingly volatile foreign exchange market. In recent weeks the street rate of the Cuban Peso (CUP) has surged to close to CUP300 to US$1, compared to the official rates of CUP24 or CUP123 to the US Dollar. 

Speaking at a meeting of Cuba’s Council of Ministers, during which he outlined an action plan and a timetable for introducing measures aimed at encouraging renewed economic growth while ‘rectifying’ past mistakes, he said that his ministry was developing plans to “resize the exchange market,” and take back “control of the exchange rate in the country.”

“Next month, progress will also be made in the presentation of proposals to resize the exchange market, the intervention of the informal sector, and the control of the exchange rate in the country, which includes the determination of the exchange rate and the formation of prices,” he was reported by Cuba’s Presidency website as having told the meeting. “We are working hard on this because of the impact it has on promoting and stimulating production,” Gil said.

The reference to the informal sector relates to government’s belief that actions by some of those in Cuba’s rapidly developing, independently managed non-state MSMEs are distorting demand for foreign exchange. 

In his reported remarks the minister indicated that emphasis will also be placed on recovering remittance flows. This will involve, Gil said, encouraging their capture, and studying the feasibility of new channels, platforms, and the use of digital scenarios for remittances and banking operations for collections and payments from abroad.

In the first of what is expected to be a monthly update to the Council of Ministers on the progress being made in implementing the reforms announced last year, Gil said that another priority will be the implementation of a new approach to managing the financial resource held by both state and non-state businesses.  This would involve he said a “new mechanism for the allocation and management of liquidity for all economic actors, based on the distortions that exist today, in order to achieve a more harmonious functioning of the economy.” It would enable, he suggested, progress to be made in enabling previously announced plans to encourage “the autonomy of the state company.”

Stressing the importance of what he described as government’s “high-impact plans,” he noted, among them would be a “currency allocation and management mechanism, which includes the resizing of the exchange market.” This, he said “is transversal to the entire economy and we are going to face it this year; the transition from subsidy to products to subsidy to people, which implies a change in the distribution of wealth, that is more fair and equitable; as well as the transformation in the institutional, regulatory and organisational environment of the economy.”

Gil’s remarks suggest that the intention, as previously announced, is that 2024 will be the year when most socialist state enterprises must control their own budgets and are required to operate under central and local government constraints to deliver surpluses, and if relevant to do so by working in conjunction with state and non-state MSMEs.

Previous statements indicate that the government’s longer-term objective is to create a circular domestic economy, making Cuba as far as possible self-sufficient. How rapidly this might happen in the light of shortages of inputs and foreign exchange, uncertainty on the part of managers, continuing migration, and other constraints such as constant power outages, has yet to be clarified.

In his remarks, Gil stressed that the group of economic measures announced in December by the island’s Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, (Details Cuba Briefing 2 January 2024)are intended to deliver what is necessary to boost productive activity, increase national production, and generate exports and income in foreign currency with the objective of achieving macroeconomic stabilisation.

He also sought to reassure Cubans concerned about large increases in the cost of utilities and transport:   “It is not about raising prices for the sake of increasing them,” he said, “but rather about encouraging savings, making more efficient use of resources, and seeking a more fair and equitable distribution of the wealth that is generated,” he stressed.

 “That is the meaning of the rates and prices that we are updating, because they have been left behind in time, disconnected from costs, and today what is really happening is that waste is being encouraged,” Cuba’s state media quoted him as adding.

In his presentation to the Council of Ministers of an ‘Action Plan for the Implementation of the Government’s Projections to Correct Distortions and Re-boost the Economy’, Gil noted that every included action was linked to government’s macroeconomic stabilisation programme, including “price correction …. because it eliminates or reduces subsidies and increases tax revenue.”

Speaking about increasing and diversifying external income, Gil emphasised that “many of the projections included in the document will have more favourable impacts if more resources are available.” “Having more fuel, more inputs for national production, necessarily involves income in foreign currency, external income that must be encouraged,” he pointed out in a reference to the need to export more, and Cuba’s interest in increasing the role of foreign investment in a broader range of operations in Cuba’s domestic economy and productive sectors.

Among the objectives of government projections, Gil noted, is an increase in national production using installed capacities. In this respect and referring to recently introduced measures to reduce tariffs on imports of raw materials, inputs, and intermediate goods (Cuba Briefing 5 February 2024)  he noted the need for Cuba to address idle capacities in industry, and the importance of products being produced  domestically.

Developing the economy, Gil stressed, means “offering greater well-being to the people, and what we are doing goes in that direction.” The worst risk, he said, would be in not changing and not transforming.

At the Council of Ministers meeting, details of other aspects of the proposed timetable were reported to have been discussed, including plans to update regulations in February to allow the restructuring of the ways in which local development projects are managed.

More generally, the meeting heard that the measures being introduced across the year will be accompanied by several “political processes”.

Reports of the meeting quoted President Díaz-Canel as saying  that the intention is to “confront everything that deviates from the spirit of the Revolution in our society.”  A common thread, he said,  will be the approach proposed by former President Raúl Castro, (Cuba Briefing 8 January 2024), and will be about ‘the decisive importance’ of maintaining Cuban unity, the work of the cadres, ideological work, and facing the problems of the economy.”

Cuba’s President said this will be a large-scale process that will involve “a discussion of partisan militancy, cover all administrative structures, and also groups of workers, students, and the population in communities,” and “therefore the entire Cuban society.” “It is a process,” he indicated, “that will contribute to reaffirming the need and strategic importance of unity, exemplarity and combativeness in the revolutionary ranks.”

Also speaking, Roberto Morales, the Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) and an increasingly high-profile politburo member, said that “the Party will promote discussion of the document: ‘Basic concepts for the correction of deviations and negative trends in Cuban society’.” A practice, he recalled, that is not new in Cuba.

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo: via @PresidenciaCuba

15th January 2024

A proposed second National Conference of Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) that was to have taken place during the first quarter of 2024 has been postponed. The decision, which was  endorsed at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the PCC held in mid-December, reportedly reflected the need to concentrate on delivery, the “urgencies and priorities of the country,” and to accelerate decision making. The mid-December meeting principally focussed on the steps needed to encourage the better delivery of solutions in ailing sectors of the economy, and was notable for its stress on action rather than debate. Among the less publicised decisions taken was recognition of the need to establish “a close relationship between all economic actors based on the development of the country,” and the creation of “a superior contracting process” between state entities and suppliers to satisfy the demand for food.

The little reported plenary also agreed that fifteen new Economic and Social Policy Guidelines should be adopted in relation to Cuba’s National Economic and Social Development Plan 2030, largely relating to new priorities and updating.  The new measures proposed include promoting the insertion of non-state companies into the national economy and their integration with state companies to improve economic and social outcomes; the creation of new financial mechanisms to stimulate exports, import substitution, and foreign investment; and the promotion of international cooperation directly with Cuba’s provinces. Official reporting also noted that the guidelines should in future seek to promote the de-dollarisation of the economy; developing an exchange market with an economically founded and stable exchange rate; and the introduction of measures aimed at reducing inflationary pressures “to stop the deterioration of the purchasing power of salaries and pensions.”

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo: via Granma

11th December 2023

 The Director of Cuba’s state sugar group, Azcuba, Julio García, has said that the 2023-24 harvest will be “superior” to that of 2022-23, while indicating that government regards the sector’s future as strategic in relation to power generation. 

In 2022-23 the country recorded an all-time production low of about 350,000 tonnes despite a significant restructuring of the sector. 

Speaking on the television and radio programme Mesa Redonda, he gave no indication of expected production levels in the coming campaign. Instead García set out the sector’s plans for recovery, in part with foreign investment, while making clear the many challenges facing the industry if it is to achieve its objective of becoming a profitable, integrated ,agro-industrial sector. 

 García made clear that the coming campaign is expected to guarantee all the sugar necessary for the domestic economy, as well as to produce alcohols and spirits, but said nothing about previously unmet export contracts with China for the supply of sugar. He also stressed the importance of planting a greater area under cane, describing it as “a fundamental step for growth.” 

“We expect a harvest greater than the previous one, with the capacity to ensure the demands of the economy and [to] allocate a part to exports. It will be a short but efficient harvest, in which we must place the worker at the centre of attention. We know that an economic recovery of the country requires the contribution of the sugar sector,” he told viewers. 

In his remarks García stressed the strategic importance of the sector and its restructuring, observing its important contribution to the country’s energy supply. “This is a strategic sector due to its contribution to the energy matrix,” he said, noting that up to 14 % of the country’s energy supply could be achieved using as biomass, sugar cane, other crop residues such as sugar cane straw, and forest residues. 

He also set out the extent to which plans to restructure the industry had been achieved. Today, he said, the sector consists of 56 agro-industrial sugar companies, one sugarcane factory in the Santa Cruz del Sur municipality, and 16 support companies which include 12 distilleries, 11 refineries, as well as 114 derivatives plants and 10 rum factories. 

García said that to “advance and recover,” the sector’s new business model allowed for “obtaining 84% of the foreign currency to buy inputs for sugar cane, such as herbicides and fertilisers.” Listing some of the derivatives the sector produces including electricity, alcohol, rums, sorbitol, cane wax, raw materials for more than 50 medicines, and bioproducts some relating to the planting of sugarcane, he suggested their export development potential “can provide the sources of financing that the sector needs.” 

Azcuba, he noted, had “approved foreign investment negotiating directives” …. “linked to BRICS countries, that are traditional sugar producers, [which can] contribute to the sector with modern technology: mainly Indian, Brazilian and Chinese,” but not mentioning recent Russian interest in the sector. 

Foreign investment, he made clear, will also be essential for 16 products the group has, to make use of planned increases in sugarcane production to develop other product lines such as brandy and wine. Azcuba was also exploring, he said, businesses linked to the modernisation of power plants and studying the development of biofuels. Noting that the entity’s new business model made this easier to do, he said that in the domestic market advantage will be taken “to introduce joint ventures and exporters into the value chain.” 

“Food production is a priority for our sector. Our plants with the greatest strengths are those that have a circular economy model, since they grow cane, manufacture sugar, but they also make alcohol, rum, produce electricity, yeast …. closing the cycle of the circular economy,” he told viewers. 

Despite this, García pointed to multiple challenges still facing the recovery of the sector. 

These included, he said, the fact that low production and shortages of sugar on the domestic market had seen its price there rise to CUP150 per lb, resulting in illegalities and the company having to work with Cuba’s judicial system and introduce video recording systems. 

He also pointed to the need to overcome the failure to date to achieve the required 1.4mn hectares under sugarcane required for future development; having to attend to changing organisational and management capacity as a result of those involved leaving the country or for self-employment or to MSMEs; existing debts to farmers from previous years; shortages of fuel and energy at key moments and undersupply; availability of all of the financing required for inputs when needed; shortages of fertilisers and herbicides; and climate change. 

García also referred to the impact that the excessive burning of cane had on yields and quality; the continuing impact of the embargo on critical items of imported equipment; and the failure to meet “very serious commitments” for contracted exports. He also noted the complexity of pricing of sugar cane because of its inclusion in the state regulated family basket, being able to produce enough food to feed and adequately house workers in the sector and attract better educated younger people into the sector. 

Cuba historically consumes around 700,000 tonnes of sugar each year and has exported under contract about 0.4mn tonnes to China. In 2019 Cuba produced 1.3 mn tonnes of sugar. 

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

4th December 2023

During an official visit to the United Arab Emirates, Cuba’s President has said that the Cuban Government is willing “to support any type of investment that the Emirati business community wants to make on the Island.”

Speaking in Doha to leading local businesspeople and prior to participating in the COP28 Climate Change Conference, President Díaz-Canel said that when he had met with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE and Emir of Abu Dhabi, several important agreements had been signed. They are expected, he said, to raise economic-commercial engagement to the same level as the two nation’s “excellent political-diplomatic relations.” 

These would, he said, support the Emirati business community become investors and included: a reciprocal Investment protection treaty; another eliminating double taxation; the creation of an inter-governmental commission; the establishment of a bilateral business committee; the development of an economic cooperation agenda; and the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the central banks of both countries.

Díaz-Canel also noted that the cooperation developed so far, including the use of credits from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, for upgrading water infrastructure and new renewable energy sources, pointed the way to develop new business opportunities with this fund.

He also referred to Cuba’s willingness to access the UAE’s Mubadala Fund, through joint projects and investments in the fields of food production, tourism, renewable energy, and biotechnology, and in other areas. The Mubadala Fund is a sovereign wealth fund with US$276bn in assets, has global interests across multiple sectors and asset classes, and operates from offices in Abu Dhabi, London, Moscow, New York, and Beijing.

In his remarks Díaz-Canel highlighted the Emir’s proposal that they explore ways to significantly expand travel in both directions, strengthening air interconnections. He also stressed the opportunities in tourism and biotechnology that Cuba is willing to provide, as well as in the wholesale and retail trade.

In a briefing to the Cuban media accompanying the President, Déborah Rivas, the Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (Mincex), said that the conversation between the two Presidents “will have an energising effect on economic and commercial relations.” Because after many months of preparation it had been possible to establish a group of international legal instruments “of utmost importance for investors in any country in the world,” Cuba, she said, regarded the visit as both

“strategic, [and] historic.”

“Signing these documents with a country like the United Arab Emirates opens a path of greater transparency and legal certainty for investors” in a manner that is attractive, she said. It will enable Cuba  “to achieve our policy of attracting foreign investment for prioritised sectors.”

In her remarks, Rivas noted that Emirati investments in Cuba could enable food production both for domestic supply and for export to the Latin American and Caribbean region, and facilitate the development of renewable energy, especially solar. She also suggested that the agreements reached will open business opportunities in the real estate sector and in hotel development.

On banking, the Vice Minister indicated that it is expected that the memorandum of understanding between the central banks of both countries will open possibilities for Cuban and Emirati commercial banks to establish direct banking and financial relations. She also noted that during the visit other agreements were signed relating to science, technology, and innovation, and in the sports sector.

During his visit to Dubai, President Díaz-Canel met with resident Cuban nationals to whom he indicated that the Emir, the UAE President, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, “was very sensitive towards Cuba, understanding our situation and with a tremendous willingness to increase economic-commercial relations.“

“Friendship, mutual respect and admiration have predominated in our relations, and I believe that all possibilities are opening up at this time” to promote everything based on mutually beneficial economic-commercial development,” Cuba’s President said.

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo: Gulf Observer

20th November 2023

Cuba has urged the Biden Administration to comply with the two  nation’s agreements that guarantee the regular, safe, and orderly migration of Cubans to the US.

Speaking to the media following a 14 November meeting in Havana with senior US officials on migratory issues, Carlos Fernández de Cossío,  Cuba’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the US proportionally admits more irregular migrants from Cuba than from any other country, and that its policies towards Cuba acted as a “stimulus.”

“By accepting the majority of those who arrive,“ he said the US was failing to comply with bilateral agreements in their entirety.

Fernández de Cossío said that the inclusion of Cuba in the US’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and the socioeconomic effects of sanctions, acted as an important stimulus for irregular migration. It was important, he said, that bilateral migration agreements were complied with in their entirety and not selectively.

In his remarks to the media, De Cossío stressed that the creation by the US of legal pathways for Cubans to migrate, including family reunification and humanitarian parole programmes, meant that the problems will continue.

In Washington, he noted, “there is no political will” to change the immigration policy.  “For the United States, the priority of destabilising Cuba continues to take precedence over stopping human flows and guaranteeing safe, regular, orderly and legal migration,” he observed.

More generally, De Cossío described the meeting as a “useful exercise,” but added that in bilateral migration matters “there is much to do.”

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) in a statement noted the negative impact that the embargo and its tightening since 2019 have had on the Cuban population, observing also that the preferential treatment received by Cubans who enter US territory irregularly under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which grants permanent residence to Cubans after a year, encouraged irregular migration.

Minrex added that during the meeting Cuban officials expressed Havana’s concern about the granting of political asylum by the US to those who hijacked Cuban aircraft, observing that it incentivised similar acts with dangerous consequences for the national security of both countries. It reiterated Cuba’s willingness to comply with established commitments

In a minimal statement released after the meeting, the US State Department said that “the  regular semi-annual meeting to discuss the implementation of the US-Cuba Migration Agreements, saw the US delegation raise important issues for cooperation on migration, as well as the obstacles that hinder the achievement of the objectives of the Agreements.”

It added that the talks in Havana underscored Washington’s desire to maintain constructive engagement “that advances the interests of the US” and is consistent with “our interest in fostering family reunification and promoting greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba.” The State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Eric Jacobstein, led the US interagency delegation.

Last calendar year more than 313,000 Cubans arrived irregularly to the United States mainly through its southern border. According to the Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 200,287 Cubans arrived in the US in fiscal year 2023, which ended in September. In October this year alone, a record monthly 18,083 Cuban migrants arrived mostly through Mexican border points according to the CBP. For the ten months up to the end of October this year, 57,243 Cubans obtained legal entry to the US under the Biden Administration’s humanitarian parole programme. So far the US has returned 5,056 irregular migrants mostly arriving by sea.

As Cuba Briefing has reported previously, high levels of migration are beginning to affect Cuba’s economic  recovery. The island’s official national and provincial media now regularly report that shortages of food and medicines, power outages, soaring inflation, low state wages, dollarisation, and the need for a source of foreign currency to survive, are together resulting in many Cubans seeing migrating to the US as an attractive option, especially for those who are young and well educated. The reported effect of US policy now appears  to be a growing island-wide skills shortage in medicine, teaching, heavy industry, manufacturing, and the professions, all of which need to function effectively if the island is to experience economic recovery in the near future.

The Caribbean Council is able to provide further detail about all of the stories in Cuba Briefing. If you would like a more detailed insight into any of the content of today’s issue, please get in touch.

Photo: EL Pais

30th October 2023

A Chinese-built floating dock located in the Casablanca Shipyard in Havana and operated by the Caribbean Drydock Company SA has been inaugurated. The facility, described as the largest and most modern to offer services in the Caribbean region, has a lifting capacity of 22,000 tons allowing the shipyard to carry out repairs and improve the independence of Cuba’s shipping. The multi-million-dollar investment is also intended to  become an important source of foreign exchange income for Cuba. Miguel Pineda, the Director General of the Maritime-Port Transport Business Group, said that depending on the availability of resources the facility’s services will be offered to both national and foreign vessels.

Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

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