Cuba Attracts $1.9 B in Foreign Investment Despite Sanctions

During his speech at an online economic forum to present the new Portfolio of Foreign Investment Opportunities 2020-2021, the Cuban Foreign Trade and Investment Minister Rodrigo Malmierca assured participants of a reduction in the internal obstacles that potential investors had to face earlier in Cuba, a measure that seeks to confront the "economic war" that the U.S. government is unleashing on the island.

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"From November of last year to November of this year, 34 new business associations have been approved for an investment amount of over 1,8 billion dollars (...) These are not the results the country needs, but they show a great interest in doing business with Cuba despite the United States' measures to isolate our economy," Malmierca announced on Tuesday.

Malmierca also detailed that the government's new plan on investments with foreign capital includes 503 projects in the sectors of tourism, biotechnology, the pharmaceutical industry, and in the wholesale trade, for a value of 12 billion dollars. 

"In the financial sector, we are promoting the to be established in technological, scientific parks like the one already in existence in the Cuban capital," he added.

The portfolio mentioned above, continued the Minister of Trade, also incorporates "smaller size projects" to attract investment from small and medium companies, particularly from Cubans living abroad.

Malmierca also insisted on the importance of foreign investments to reduce the effects of the economic recession currently affecting the island, accentuated by the coronavirus pandemic, and the upsurge of the anti-Cuban measures of the U.S. Administration, chaired by Donald Trump.

Among the most recent coercive measures, Washington in September prohibited American travelers from staying on the island in places owned by the Cuban government. 

Besides, the United States has imposed sanctions against Cuban health institutions, hindering access to the supplies needed to deal with the coronavirus.

In reaction, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced that such measures violated the rights of Cubans. However, he stressed that the Cuban people would not give up their sovereignty even with these draconian sanctions.