The announcement comes at a time when Washington is subjecting the country to an energy blockade as part of its policy of maximum pressure against the communist government
Os Cubans living abroad and their descendants will be able to invest on the islandannounced the Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Oscar Pérez-Oliva, in an interview with the American broadcaster NBC released this Monday (16).
It is announcement comes at a time when Washington subjects the island to an energy blockade in fact as part of its policy of maximum pressure against the communist government.
“Cuba is open to maintaining a fluid commercial relationship with American companies” and “also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants,” said Pérez-Oliva in the interview with NBC in Havana.
As long as will allow emigrants to have their own businesses on the islandaims to create a “dynamic business environment” and will be applied “to investments – not only small ones, but also large investments, especially in infrastructure”, said Pérez-Oliva.
He highlighted that the The objective of this opening is to reactivate key sectors of the economysuch as tourism and mining, as well as restoring the country’s obsolete electrical grid, which has suffered for years from breakdowns that cause prolonged blackouts.
Under US embargo since 1962, Cuba, with 9.6 million inhabitants, is going through an energy crisis that has almost completely paralyzed its economy after Washington cut oil shipments from Venezuela, its main supplier, and threatened other countries that sell fuel to the country with sanctions.
The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, confirmed on Friday that his country and that his American counterpart, Donald Trump, declared on Sunday that Havana wants to close an agreement with the United States that, according to him, will be reached “very soon”.
In his statements about Cuba, Trump often praises the economic success of Cubans who emigrated to the United States and he does not hide his desire to see a change of regime on the island.
According to Washington, the island, located just 150 km off the coast of Florida, represents an “exceptional threat” due to its close relations with Russia, China and Iran.
*AFP
