Cuba Opens Sugar Industry To Foreign Investment

September 10, 2012 15:53 PM

Cuba Opens Sugar Industry To Foreign Investment

HAVANA, Sept 10 (Bernama) -- Cuba has authorised the first joint venture
in the sugar industry in a bid to revitalise the sector, Xinhua news
agency reported.

The state-run Sugar Group Azcuba will create the first joint venture
with foreign capital to build a bioelectrical power station at the Ciro
Redondo sugar factory about 45,000 km east of Havana.

"The main goal is to achieve a diversified sugar industry to obtain the
economic goals we have along with a high integration of technicians,"
Wilson Morell, vice-president of Azcuba, told Xinhua news agency.

Morell did not specify which foreign company will participate in the
project.

In January, Brazilian group Odebrecht announced the signing of a
contract with Azcuba for the productive management of a sugar factory in
Cienfuegos province.

For over a century, Cuba was among the world's top sugar exporters with
8 million annual tonnes, but the industry shrank after the fall of
Cuba's main economic ally Soviet Union. The island country's sugar
production hit a historical low in 2009 with only 1.1 million tonnes.

President Raul Castro has been trying to restore the sector with new
technologies and systems to generate exports capable of financing its
own expenses.

-- BERNAMA

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