Foreign trade minister touring Brasil to pitch Mariel

Foreign trade minister touring Brasil to pitch Mariel



CUBA STANDARD — Continuing his global road show for the Mariel Special

Development Zone, Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca is heading a

Cuban delegation that is touring Brazil's industrial hot spots to draw

attention of manufacturers to what is Cuba's most ambitious economic

development project in half a century.



Malmierca's visits to São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio

de Janeiro come after Mariel presentations to business executives in

Hanoi, Beijing and Moscow. On a lower level, Cuban embassies around the

globe have been promoting the Mariel Zone as well.



Brazil is funding the $900 million construction of a container hub at

the Port of Mariel, 30 miles west of Havana. The port is the core of the

180-square mile export zone to which Cuba is trying to attract high

value-added companies, offering tax breaks and other incentives.



One Brazilian company, glassmaker Fanavid SA, has committed to opening a

plant in the Zone, according to Brazilian government officials. Another

one, bus maker Marcopolo, is reportedly considering a move to the Zone.



On Thursday, Malmierca and the Cuban delegation gave a presentation to

the Federation of Industries in the State of São Paulo (FIESP), the

heart of manufacturing in Brazil. The investment conditions at Mariel

are "very interesting from a cost standpoint," said FIESP foreign

relations head Thomaz Zanotto during the event.



Cuba's top targets are biotech, pharmaceutical, renewable-energy, IT,

telecom, tourism, food processing, packaging, and real estate

development companies.



Malmierca started his Brasil tour with a visit to Brasilia Nov. 19,

where he gave Mariel briefings to ministry officials, as well as

executives of Brazil's Foreign Chamber of Commerce, Banco do Brasil and

government development bank BNDES. The Mariel presentation in Brasilia

came after a meeting of the bilateral economic and trade commission,

which was presided by Malmierca and Brazil's Development, Industry and

Trade Minister Ricardo Schaefer.



The Cuban delegation also used the opportunity to give a presentation of

Cuba's biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.



Source: "Foreign trade minister touring Brasil to pitch Mariel « Cuba

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