Cuba must cut red tape to ease foreign investment in the productive sector and promote its investment law to spur capital flow in key economic sectors, an official said Tuesday.
"We have to be quicker when working with foreign capital," Rodrigo Malmierca, minister of foreign trade and investment, told a parliamentary session held to review the results of socio-economic reforms implemented this year by the government of President Raul Castro.
"We're moving forward and expecting more good results in the near future," Malmierca said. "It is a complex issue that takes a lot of work, because the negotiation processes take time and require maturation periods," he said.
Cuba has so far approved the entry of 37 new business projects, six of which are located in the special economic zone of Mariel on the west coast. More than 40 other foreign investment projects are close to signing and expected to be launched soon, he said.
Havana and Washington restored diplomatic ties this year, but the embargo remains, hampering much of Cuba's foreign business. Maria Teresa Igarza, head of the Mariel special economic zone, said there is growing international interest in doing business with Cuba, including major U.S. corporations, such as Caterpillar, General Electric and General Motors.
Cuba's portfolio of business opportunities features 326 projects which value some 8 billion U.S. dollars in 12 key economic sectors.
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