Cuba seeks to amass foreign investment despite on going crisis

• Cuba announced that it has completed 30 foreign investment projects.
• This is more than in 2021 but significantly less than pre-pandemic levels of up to $2 billion.
• Cuba’s GDP has plummeted by 9.8% since 2019.

Cuba announced on Tuesday that it has completed 30 foreign investment projects worth approximately $400 million this year, which is more than in 2021 but significantly less than pre-pandemic levels of up to $2 billion.

Cuba is experiencing its greatest economic crisis in decades and is in dire need of foreign investment to fund the acquisition of food, medicine, gasoline, and raw materials required to kickstart stuttering production.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero stated that investing in the Communist-run nation was difficult, citing U.S. sanctions, current international uncertainty, and Cuba’s infamously inept state bureaucracy.

However, Marrero stated that the nation was inspired.

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At an investment symposium in the nation’s capital, Marrero stated, “We have to banish all that unnecessary bureaucracy and generate new opportunities that are attractive to foreign businessmen.”

In practice, this may be difficult.

Cuba announced on Monday that it expects its economy to grow by only 2% this year, which is half of what was predicted and provides no relief for the Caribbean island nation, whose GDP has plummeted by 9.8% since 2019.

According to the majority of academics, a half-dozen ambassadors, and numerous ancestors, the communist nation owes its financial partners hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We guarantee compliance with late payments to the extent that financial conditions allow,” Marrero said.

Despite the economic crisis, some attendees of the trade show told the media they were willing to wager on Cuba.

Despite the issues, Alexandre Carpenter, co-president of cigarette manufacturer Brascuba, a joint venture between Cuba and the Brazilian arm of British American Tobacco (BATS.L), told the media that his business would open a new factory next year.

“We have to find a solution to the financial problems they have with us and I am optimistic it will happen soon,” he said.

Over the past year, more than 5,500 small and medium-sized private companies have gone public, giving investors access to a hitherto undiscovered market segment.

Alberto Gómez, a representative of a Mexican company that manufactures machines and tools, stated that he was at the exhibition in search of private partners.

“Definitely we are not afraid as investors in Cuba, we are already making arrangements and making alliances with a well-established (private) company,” he said.

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