Cuba aims to attract foreign capital with reforms

Cuba aims to attract foreign capital with reforms
AFP

Cuba hopes to attract more international investment and open its markets
with new reforms before the end of the year, the communist island's
foreign trade ministry said Friday.

"We are looking to boost foreign investments, as a complement to
domestic investment efforts, directing them to priority sectors to
increase access to technology and expand markets," said Foreign Trade
Ministry finance chief Yamila Fernandez del Busto.

She said Cuba was working on modifying law 77, which deals with foreign
capital in Cuba, by December.

Cuba has allowed foreign investment since 1993, when then-president
Fidel Castro introduced timid reforms to fight the economic crisis that
followed the fall of the Soviet Union.

Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother in 2006, has launched
more ambitious reforms, seeking to revitalize the island's inefficient
centralized economy.

Foreign investment, generally combined with Cuban government capital, is
mainly concentrated in the tourism, mining and oil sectors.

Havana has not published official figures on foreign investment since 2010.

In 2009, Communist Party newspaper Granma said the number of Cuban
businesses using foreign capital had fallen by about 20 percent, to 258
companies.

The paper said the drop was due to the combined effects of the global
financial crisis, domestic economic woes and the US economic embargo, in
effect since 1962.

http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-aims-attract-foreign-capital-reforms-190753299.html;_ylt=AhWQku_YK2xBKg19dsBMjdj9SpZ4