The Pharmaceutical Market: Cuba - 2007 Update

March 19, 2008 10:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time

The Pharmaceutical Market: Cuba - 2007 Update a Targeted Report Enabling
You to Keep Up to Date With Market Developments for a Year

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c52599) has announced the
addition of The Pharmaceutical Market: Cuba - 2007 Update from Espicom
Business Intelligence to their offering.

These in-depth pharmaceutical market reports are ideal for executives
wanting to understand the key drivers in pharmaceutical markets and have
access to a wealth of statistical data. Each report opens with an
outlook section that provides analysis of the market, 5-year market
forecasts, national data projections, market outlook and key
developments such as regulation, pricing/reimbursement, intellectual
property, health facilities and government policy. The report also
provides extensive background information, population trends, health
status, health expenditure, organisation & administration, hospital
services, medical personnel, healthcare development, market access
information, trade data for raw materials and finished products and
essential industry contacts. Included with the report are 3 free
quarterly updated outlook reports, enabling you to keep up to date with
market developments for a year.
Content Outline:

1.Introduction
2.Background
3.Population
4.Health Status
5.Health Expenditure
6.Organisation & Administration
7.Hospital Services
8.Out-Patient Care
9.Medical Personnel
10.Pharmaceutical Market Environment
11.Pharmaceutical Market
12.Directory

Cuba is one of the world's last unreconstructed communist countries.
Ruled since the 1950s by Dr Fidel Castro, Cuba has attempted none of the
economic reforms implemented in Eastern Europe or even China. Despite
this, the country has a reputation for the quality of its health
services and health indicators, and has an impressive
pharmaceutical/biotechnology research sector. This reputation is
deserved in part, but conceals an ageing healthcare system in dire need
of restructuring and modernising, none of which can be achieved without
greatly increased funding.

During the Cold War, Cuba was a major Soviet ally, and the market
remained largely closed to the West. During the 1990s, however, many
countries in the West established links with Cuba. The USA, virtually
alone, maintains its embargo against Cuba. This is starting to hurt US
healthcare firms, as companies based in Asia, Canada and Western Europe
have the high-tech market to themselves. The international healthcare
industry is taking an increasing interest in Cuba, which in turn has
made efforts to integrate into the global marketplace in an attempt to
attract new funding for its healthcare system.

Since its realignment under the consortium QUIMEFA in 2001, domestic
pharmaceutical production has kept growing, with increasing
biotechnology export opportunities not only in developing countries but
also in Europe and other developed countries. Cuba maintains a list of
essential medicines (CBM), with 827 in 2005, of which 521 are
domestically produced. There is no commercial advertising in Cuba,
instead advertising has an educational purpose. Cuba affords some level
of pharmaceutical patent protection, although less than international
norms. Since 2001, FARMACUBA has acted as importer, exporter and
distributor for QUIMEFA.
Companies Mentioned:

- Adalberto Pessant
- CIDEM
- CIGB (Heber Biotec)
- CIM (CIMAB)
- Eron
- Instituto FINLAY
- MEDSOL
- Reynaldo Gutierrez
- Roberto Escudero Diaz
- 8 de Marzo
- CancerVax
- Genesis Medical Technologies
- GlaxoSmithKline

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c52599.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080319005530&newsLang=en

Cuba to make computers, microwaves, other goods available to consumers

Saturday, March 15, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Cuba to make computers, microwaves, other goods available to consumers
By Pablo Bachelet and Wilfredo Cancio Isla
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Opening a crack in Cuba's closely controlled communist
economy, the Cuban government reportedly will soon allow ordinary Cubans
an unrestricted possibility to purchase items such as computers and
microwave ovens.

The move is viewed as part of the long-awaited reforms promised by Raul
Castro, who has criticized the island's "excess of prohibitions and
regulations" when he took over Cuba's presidency from his brother Fidel
on Feb. 24.

A government memo obtained by the Reuters news agency showed that
restrictions on the sale of goods such as computers, DVD players and
microwave ovens will be lifted.

Computers were reserved for foreigners and companies and Cubans with
special government permission to buy them. Internet access remains
tightly restricted to foreigners and specially designated Cubans.
Permission for travelers to import some electronic goods such as DVD
players was approved last May.

But on Friday the Communist Party newspaper Granma published an
editorial trying to tamp down expectations, saying bolder reforms would
have to wait until productivity improved.

The memo issued to all government stores said the open sale of consumer
goods will have a staggered rollout: DVD and video players, microwave
ovens and computers would be sold to all comers immediately, as well as
electric pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles and car
alarms.

Energy-hungry items like air conditioners and water heaters will have to
wait until April of next year. Kitchen stoves, ovens and toasters will
have to wait even more, until 2010, due to tight supplies.

Certain kinds of TV sets, which before were only available in
hard-currency stores, would be sold more widely, according to Reuters
and other published reports.

The memo cites an easing of the island's energy crunch as a reason for
allowing the sale of more consumer products. The goods will initially be
available in three government-owned stores in Havana.

Granma's editorial also hinted that Cubans would be given greater access
to tourist hotels. Signed by Lazaro Barredo, a member of the National
Assembly, it lumped hotel access together with consumer goods as part of
a set of prohibitions that most Cubans despise.

But with the average Cuban making only $15 a month, a $1,000 computer or
$100 weekend getaway at the beach is beyond the reach of most family
budgets.

Echoing Castro's cautious style, Granma's editorial sought to manage
expectations by warning that a salary boost would not occur anytime soon.

advertising

It's one thing to tackle "certain restrictions" like Cubans' access to
tourist hotels, Barredo wrote, and quite another to do away with Cuba's
dual-currency system. Most salaries are in pesos, but prices for many
goods are pegged to "hard pesos" known as CUCs and equal to 25 pesos.

The dual-currency system gives much stronger purchasing power to those
who have access to hard currencies. Low salaries are one of the most
frequently cited criticisms in Cuba.

"It is no doubt essential to improve services, consumption, to have
products and resources," Barredo wrote. "These won't fall from the sky,
they arise from work and from a higher salary for the person who
produces more."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004284031_cubabuy15.html

Cuba allows purchase of agricultural equipment by private farmers

Cuba allows purchase of agricultural equipment by private farmers
11:14 | 18/ 03/ 2008

MEXICO City, March 18 (RIA Novosti) - Cuba has lifted a ban on private
farmers buying agricultural equipment in a sign that new Cuban President
Raul Castro is seeking to stimulate food production, Mexican mass media
reported on Tuesday.

The sale of machinery, fertilizer and mechanical appliances was
previously strictly controlled by the state. From now on, private
farmers will be able to buy equipment with the freely convertible
currency they receive from selling agricultural produce to the state at
fixed prices.

The move may save communist Cuba hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars
which are usually spent on food imports. In 2007, Cuba purchased food
imports worth $2 billion.

The new Cuban leader also said agriculture was a priority for the
country's economic development.

There are more than 250,000 farms and 1,100 private cooperatives in
Cuba. They farm a third of the country's agricultural land.

Raul Castro became president of Cuba after Fidel Castro announced on
February 19 that he would step down as Cuba's president due to health
problems. Castro, 81, remains the head of the Communist Party.

Shortly after his election, Raul Castro said he was willing to introduce
moderate economic reforms in Cuba, but insisted that he would not
deviate from the path of socialism. On Friday he vowed to ease
restrictions on the sale of electronic equipment, including DVDs,
computers, TVs and cookers.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20080318/101567961.html

Chinese buses bring welcome change to Cuba

Chinese buses bring welcome change to Cuba
Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:03pm EDT
By Esteban Israel

HAVANA (Reuters) - Change is coming to Cuba, on Chinese wheels.

And Cubans, long accustomed to waiting for hours on curb sides for a
creaking "guagua" (bus), like what they see.

Deficient public transport, one of the most pressing problems inherited
by Cuba's new president, Raul Castro, has taken a great leap forward
over the last year thanks to thousands of buses imported from China.

It is the most noticeable change to life in Cuba since Raul Castro took
over as caretaker when his brother Fidel Castro fell ill and stepped
aside in July 2006.

The transfer of power was completed last month when Raul Castro was
formally named president, raising hopes among some Cubans that the
improvements he has overseen in transport might be spread to housing and
other social services.

The lines at Havana bus stops are now much shorter with new buses
running 10 or 15 minutes apart, and the sight of Cubans racing
desperately to catch a lone bus already packed with passengers is less
frequent.

"This is improvement, compared to the apocalypse we were living
through," said state employee Jose, 51, amazed to see two buses arriving
simultaneously.

Flashy articulated buses have replaced the notoriously uncomfortable
"camels" or humped-back buses Cuba resorted to when the loss of Soviet
aid took the communist island nation to the brink of collapse in the 1990s.

Cuba started buying buses from Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co. in 2005 when
its economy recovered with the help of Venezuela, and stepped up the
pace last year by ordering another 5,348 buses worth $370 million,
becoming the company's largest foreign client.

Yutong buses, with air conditioning and TV screens, now connect Cuban
towns in rural areas where the more usual form of transport has been
standing in the back of open trucks or crammed into privately-run
vintage Chevrolet trucks.

For years, Cuba relied on second-hand buses brought from European
cities, and Cubans were accustomed to taking buses still showing
destination signs such as Rotterdam Zentrum or Milano Centrale. It also
bought school buses from Quebec, with flashing lights on signs in French.

The more dilapidated buses coughing up clouds of black smoke on Cubans
streets are most often 20 to 30-year-old vehicles made in Soviet-bloc
countries on their last legs.

DETROIT TO THE RESCUE

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuba lost billions of dollars
in subsidies provided mainly through cheap oil supplies bartered for
sugar exports.

As the economy plummeted and public transport came to a halt for lack of
fuel, vintage American cars revved up their motors and went to work as
private taxis that were allowed by the government to fill the void.

Detroit's best, from sporty Buicks to elegant Cadillacs and De Sotos
half a century old, have plied the streets of Cuba ever since picking up
passengers.

The drivers of private jitney cabs were a favorite target for Fidel
Castro, who accused them of being selfish capitalists charging hefty
fares compared to highly-subsidized public bus services. But competition
has arrived from China.

"Now there are more guaguas, theses guys who have made fortunes will
have to lower their fares. That's what works well, the law of supply and
demand," said Jose Perez, waiting for a bus with a heavy bag of tools on
his arm.

Perez, 58 and a member of the ruling Communist Party, said the better
bus services were due to the economic recovery that kicked in after
Venezuela started supplying Cuba with generously-financed oil in 2000,
now up to 92,000 barrels a day.

And he thinks the Chinese buses are just the start.

Perez believes more changes are on the way to improve living standards.
He for one would like the right to stay at one of the tourist hotels
where he works fixing air conditioners.

While no one expects Raul Castro to follow China's path to free-market
capitalism under communist control, he has encouraged open debate on the
failing of Cuba's socialist system, from decrepit housing to low wages.

"Things are changing. I can now say what I think at work, and I get home
in just 30 minutes," said Miguel, 28, an accountant who added that he
did not miss Fidel Castro's long speeches interrupting baseball games on
television.

(Editing by Anthony Boadle and Kieran Murray)

http://www.reuters.com/article/internalReutersGenNews/idUSN1321778820080313?sp=true

Why Cuba's new Castro is loosening up

Why Cuba's new Castro is loosening up
Posted: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:47 PM
Filed Under: Havana, Cuba
By Mary Murray, NBC News Producer

On Thursday, Cuba authorized the unrestricted sale of computers, DVD and
video players and other appliances in a move that's being seen as an
effort by Cuba's new leader, Raul Castro, to appease some of the
grumbling by residents of the island.

Cuban consumers have complained for years that there is not much here to
buy.

The sale in government-run stores of most electrical appliances and
electronics have been carefully controlled for years – in many cases
restricting their sale to foreigners and Cuba's diplomatic community.

That hasn't meant, of course, that people didn't get their hands on
electronic goods. Almost anything here can be bought – mostly at
exorbitant prices – on Cuba's flourishing black market.

This move continues a trend Raul Castro began implementing nine months
ago, when he was still acting as Cuba's "temporary" leader for his
brother Fidel. He eased customs regulations in June 2007 that permit
imports of car parts, some electrical appliances and desktop computers
destined for family members on the island. Basically this was an
invitation to Miami and the rest of the Cuban diaspora to help out
relatives still on the island.

At the time the government said it was studying the repeal of
prohibitions on items such as microwaves and freezers.

People, though, continued to complain, demanding the right to buy
locally and at fair prices.

Thursday's measures list computers, video and DVD players, 19-inch and
24-inch television sets, electric pressure cookers and rice cookers,
electric bicycles, car alarms and microwaves as items that Cubans will
now be allowed to buy.

While some people here will rejoice in the changes, you have to remember
that most working people earn the equivalent of about $25 a month and
can barely make ends meet. All retail is run by the government and
averages a 240 percent markup as legislated by Cuban law.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/13/766046.aspx

Dutch trade mission begins visit to Cuba

Dutch trade mission begins visit to Cuba
Published: Monday 10 March 2008 11:11 UTC
Last updated: Tuesday 11 March 2008 12:08 UTC

The Hague - A group of Dutch entrepreneurs has begun a trade mission to
Cuba. Representatives from more than 20 companies are taking part in the
mission, making it the largest Dutch economic delegation ever to visit
Havana.

The names of the companies making the journey are being kept secret,
chiefly to avoid sanctions by the United States, which still imposes a
trade embargo against Cuba. However, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad
reports that representatives from the Rabobank and three Rotterdam-based
shipping companies are among the delegation.

NGOs such as CNV (the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions in
the Netherlands) and Pax Christi have been urging Dutch companies to
begin cooperating with the Cuban government once a number of conditions
have been met. These include the improvement of Cuban workers' rights
and a discussion of the position of the country's trades union leaders
and dissidents.

On Saturday, European Commissioner Louis Michel said that the European
Union must begin a dialogue with Cuba, one that could lead to the
normalisation of relations between the two.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5677889/Dutch-trade-mission-begins-visit-to-Cuba

Cuba should expand cellular network

Cuba should expand cellular network
Opinion Extending liberation further
By Tony Dennis: Saturday, 15 March 2008, 9:37 AM

SO RAUL Castro is easing restrictions on the sale of DVDs and computers
in Cuba. The obvious next move is to open up its cellular networks to
the local people.

It's currently estimated that out of Cuba's population of 11 million,
only 0.2 per cent have access to the cellular network. In effect, most
of those are government officials.

Yet the country's cellular operator - Teléfonos Celulares de Cuba
(Cubacel), operates a 900 MHz GSM network which has got pretty good
national coverage for all the places tourists might want to visit.

The Inq's efforts to discover who sold the Cubans their GSM gear proved
fruitless. Ericsson sold them their previous AMPS and TDMA gear.

Given that the US employs a economic embargo on Cuba, you'd expect the
handsets on sale to be supplied by another supposed communist power such
as China.

But, oh no. The vast majority of the models on the Cubacel site are
supplied by Motorola with just one upcoming Nokia. So it's a market ripe
for exploitation – just what the handset vendors want.

There's economic sense in opening up Cuba's cellular network since
experience in developing markets shows they increase trade. Fishermen,
for example, land their fish at whichever port has the strongest demand
for that day's catch.

Reports always highlight how little the average Cuban earns but then GSM
handsets which cost $20-$30 have now come into existence.

Curiously it's TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) – rather than the likes of
Telefonica/O2 – which stands the best chance of opening up Cuba. Empresa
de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (Etecsa) which owns Cubacel is in turn
part owned by Telecom Italia.

And, as the INQ has pointed out before, if North Korea can build a
W-CDMA network, then why can't another communist state like Cuba? After
all, the cellular industry virtually invented the concept of the 'walled
garden' where only very restricted bits of the mobile web are accessible.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/15/cuba-should-expand-cellular

When Will Cuba Be Open for Business?

February 29, 2008, 11:00PM EST
When Will Cuba Be Open for Business?
It's unclear whether a new U.S. President would lift the 45-year trade
embargo, but public opinion favors improved relations between the countries

by Geri Smith

For 45 years, Fidel Castro had a convenient scapegoat for many of the
island's problems: a U.S. trade embargo that since 1962 has barred
American companies and individuals from investing in or trading with Cuba.

Ask Cubans why their lives are so difficult and why store shelves are so
bare, and they'll respond without hesitation what has been drummed into
them by schoolteachers, local news commentators, and Fidel's speeches
over the years: "It's because of the U.S. blockade."
A Tale of Many Restrictions

The Cuban government has always referred to the embargo as a "blockade,"
a word that has a more sinister tone than "embargo" and makes it sound
as if the U.S. Navy has encircled the island to keep ships packed with
goods from reaching Cuba's 11.4 million people. In fact, it's the harsh
penalties for individuals and companies that do business with Cuba
without special permission from the U.S. Treasury that have made the
embargo effective for four decades.

Washington imposed the embargo in retaliation for Cuba's expropriation
of U.S. business interests. Over the years the embargo grew in scope as
American politicians and the anti-Castro Cuban American community in
Miami grew frustrated by Havana's ability to withstand the economic
sanctions. In 1992 the U.S. Congress approved the Cuban Democracy Act,
restricting Americans from visiting the island, banning family
remittances, and prohibiting foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from
doing business with Cuba. And in 1996, Congress approved the
Helms-Burton Act, which allows Washington to ban entry into the U.S. of
executives and major shareholders of foreign companies that do business
in Cuba.

But will a new U.S. President lift the trade embargo with Cuba? When
Raúl Castro was chosen as Cuba's new President on Feb. 24, Washington
dismissed him as "Fidel Lite" and said he did not represent change. U.S.
law stipulates that Washington may not recognize a transitional
government in Cuba if it includes Fidel or Raúl Castro in the leadership
ranks. So, even if the new occupant of the White House were to favor
lifting the embargo, it could not be done without changing the law.
Diplomacy, with Conditions

Of the three leading Presidential candidates, only Democratic contender
Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has said he would be willing to sit down
and talk with Raúl Castro's government, as long as human rights are on
the agenda. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has said she wouldn't do so
until Havana starts implementing economic and political reforms, while
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has said talks are off until Cuba begins a
"transition to a free and open society" and releases all political
prisoners.

For years, American politicians have been wary of crossing the powerful
Cuban American lobby, especially in Florida, a key state for any
national election. But polls show that sentiment among Cuban émigrés has
moderated over the years, as the aging ranks of people who fled Castro's
Communist rule in the early 1960s have thinned. More recent arrivals,
who fled in the 1980s and 1990s because of economic hardship, favor
greater people-to-people contacts and believe it makes sense to engage
the Cuban leadership in talks aimed at improving life for relatives left
behind.

A Gallup survey released on Feb. 27 showed that while 83% of Americans
view Fidel Castro negatively, 61% favor establishing diplomatic
relations with Cuba.

Representative Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the powerful
House Ways & Means Committee, on Jan. 24 introduced a measure that would
end the ban on travel by Americans to Cuba. Until 2004, Cuban Americans
were allowed to travel only once a year to visit family in Cuba. That
year, the Bush Administration cut back such visits to once every three
years. New restrictions were also placed on money remittances and
academic and scientific exchanges. Democrats in Congress have vowed to
eliminate the restrictions imposed in 2004, in the belief that greater
people-to-people contact will hasten the move toward democracy in Cuba.
A Willingness to Barter, on Both Sides

U.S. business also is lobbying for a lifting of the embargo, saying
American companies could easily sell $1 billion in goods to Cuba a year,
from the outset. Last year, U.S. firms sold $438 million worth of
chicken, rice, wheat, corn, and other agricultural goods, as well as
some forestry products—such as newsprint and thousands of wooden utility
poles—to Cuba under special permits first granted in 2000 for
humanitarian reasons. Even though Cuba must pay cash up front for such
transactions because financing the Cuban government is not allowed under
the embargo, U.S. sales of such products to Cuba have tallied $2
billion, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade & Economic Council.

Cubans have been closely following the U.S. Presidential elections. They
eagerly approach the few Americans who visit the island—under journalist
visas, academic exchanges, or as tourists defying the embargo—to ask
whether they think the winner will lift the decades-old blockade.
William, 28, a waiter who earns around $25 a month at a government-owned
hotel, says he would like to see his father and three brothers in the
U.S. more than once every three years. Like many Cubans, he didn't want
to reveal his last name for fear of losing his job. "What's the point in
keeping the blockade in place?" he asks. "It hurts the average Cuban
more than it hurts the government. We just want access to consumer goods
that everyone else in the world can buy. And it's inhumane to keep us
from seeing our families."

Raú:l Castro has said on three occasions over the past 18 months that he
would like to talk with the next U.S. Administration to discuss ways of
improving relations. "Cuba is ready and willing to sit down at any table
with the U.S. government to discuss every difference we have, without
preconditions," says Josefina Vidal, the Cuban Foreign Ministry's
director of North American affairs. Havana used to insist that it would
not talk until the embargo was lifted or until the Americans gave up
their military base at Guantánamo Bay.
Our Least-Favored Communists

In recent years, Vidal says, Havana has noted an evolution of public
opinion in the U.S. "We have to wait and see if the next Administration
will be willing to try a different policy toward Cuba," she says.
"Unprecedented sanctions have been applied to collapse the Cuban
government for decades now, with no results."

Washington has managed to do business with other Communist regimes: The
U.S. normalized relations with China in 1979 and lifted the trade
embargo on Vietnam in 1992. While relaxation of the 2004 travel and
remittance restrictions on Cuba may well be possible under a new
Administration, mending relations with the world's smallest Communist
country may continue to be a much tougher proposition.

Smith is BusinessWeek's Mexico bureau chief.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_10/b4074000185600.htm

Cubans can buy computers, but Web-access limited

CUBA
Cubans can buy computers, but Web-access limited
Cuba eased restrictions on the sale of some consumer products -- but
also warned against expectations of a salary increase.
Posted on Sat, Mar. 15, 2008
By PABLO BACHELET AND WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com

Opening a crack in Cuba's closely controlled communist economy, the
government reportedly will soon allow ordinary Cubans an unrestricted
possibility to purchase items such as computers and microwave ovens.

The move is viewed as part of the long-awaited reforms promised by Raúl
Castro, who has criticized the island's ''excess of prohibitions and
regulations'' since taking over Cuba's presidency from his brother Fidel
on Feb. 24.

DVD PLAYERS

A government memo obtained by the Reuters news agency showed that
restrictions on the sale of goods such as computers, DVD players and
microwave ovens will be lifted.

Computers were reserved for foreigners and companies and Cubans with
special government permission to buy them. Internet access remains
tightly restricted to foreigners and specially designated Cubans.
Permission for travelers to import some electronic goods such as DVD
players was approved last May.

But on Friday the Communist Party newspaper Granma published an
editorial trying to tamp down expectations, saying bolder reforms would
have to wait until productivity improved.

The memo issued to all government stores said the open sale of consumer
goods will have a staggered roll-out: DVD and video players, microwave
ovens and computers would be sold to all comers immediately, as well as
electric pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles and car
alarms.

Energy-hungry items like air conditioners and water heaters will have to
wait until April of next year. Kitchen stoves, ovens and toasters will
have to wait even longer, until 2010, due to tight supplies.

THREE STORES

Certain kinds of TV sets, which before were only available in
hard-currency stores, would be sold more widely, according to Reuters
and other published reports.

The memo cites an easing of the island's energy crunch as a reason for
allowing the sale of more consumer products. The goods will initially be
available in three government-owned stores in Havana.

Granma's editorial also hinted that Cubans would be given greater access
to tourist hotels. Signed by Lázaro Barredo, a member of the National
Assembly, it lumped hotel access together with consumer goods as part of
a set of prohibitions that most Cubans despise.

But with the average Cuban making only $15 a month, a $1,000 computer or
$100 weekend getaway at the beach is beyond the reach of most family
budgets.

Echoing Castro's cautious style, Granma's editorial sought to manage
expectations by warning that a salary boost would not occur anytime soon.

One thing is to tackle ''certain restrictions'' like Cubans' access to
tourist hotels, Barredo wrote, and quite another to do away with Cuba's
dual currency system. Most salaries are in pesos but prices for many
goods are pegged to ''hard pesos'' known as CUCs and equal to 25 pesos.

BUYING POWER

The dual currency system gives much stronger purchasing power to those
who have access to hard currencies. Low salaries is one of the most
frequently cited criticisms in Cuba.

''It is no doubt essential to improve services, consumption, to have
products and resources,'' Barredo wrote ``These won't fall from the sky,
they arise from work and from a higher salary for the person who
produces more.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/457591.html

Cuba to allow sale of computers

Reuters: Cuba to allow sale of computers
Posted on Thu, Mar. 13, 2008

The Cuban government has authorized the sale of computers, DVD copiers
and other electrical equipment such as microwave ovens, the Reuters news
agency reported, quoting from a memo circulating on the island.

Reuters said it is the first signal that Cuba's new leader, Raúl Castro,
is following through on his promise to eliminate some of the many
prohibitions that affect daily life on the island and to improve access
to consumer goods.

Cuba has long restricted the sale of some electric goods, arguing that
it needed to conserve energy. Access to the Internet is also limited,
although there have been widespread reports of illegal hookups through
corruption.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/455700.html

Cuba's population falls 2 years in a row

CUBA
Cuba's population falls 2 years in a row
Cuba's government experts expect the island's population to continue a
downward trend, dropping by 77,000 people in the next 20 years. The
population has fallen for two years in a row.
Posted on Tue, Mar. 11, 2008
BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

For the second consecutive year, the population of Cuba decreased in
2007, according to the government's National Statistics Office, in a
trend the experts say is expected to continue until 2025.

The latest report from the statistics office showed that Cuba's
population in 2007 was 11,237,154, nearly 1,900 less than the 11,239,043
that were counted in 2006.

The last year of population growth was 2005, when the island had
11,243,836 people.

Cuba has not experienced a similar drop since the 19th century, when the
population shrank as a result of the 1833 cholera epidemic, the Ten Year
War of 1868-78 and the final war of independence from 1895-98.

Government estimates predict a decrease of 77,000 people in the next 20
years, or a 0.7 percent drop from current figures.

A recent report by the Cuban government's Center for Population Studies
and Development suggests that some of the factors in the decreasing
population are families having fewer children, out migration ''and an
increased rate of mortality'' affecting both the young and people over
60 years of age.

Birthrates are at their lowest levels of the past 100 years, at 10.1 per
thousand inhabitants.

The fertility curve in Cuba quickly descended to 1.44 per thousand
during the economic crisis of the 1990s and has remained more or less
stable until 2007, when it hit 1.49.

''It seemed that the entrance into the 21st century would be marked by
the recovery of this indicator, but up to the present there is no
evidence in this respect,'' said the report, titled Cuba: Population
Projections, 2007-2025.

The demographic crisis is also a product of emigration.

Some 450,000 Cubans have left the country since 1994, according to the
Cuban statistics office.

U.S. estimates are that 191,000 Cubans have arrived in the United States
since 2000, 77,000 of them in the past two years alone.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/451667.html

Cuba's generals to set to shape economic future

CUBA
Cuba's generals to set to shape economic future
With the promotions of some of Cuba's top men in uniform, Cuba's
military is expected to play a significant role in future economic reforms.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

As he climbed up the ranks of Cuba's armed forces, it was years before
Julio Casas Regueiro could shake the reputation that he was being
promoted because of who he knew -- not what.

Casas wasn't a good military man, one of his former bosses said, but
with promotions from a friend in high places -- then-Defense Minister
Raúl Castro -- he eventually proved to be a great logistician and
business manager.

And now he is Cuba's new defense minister and vice president, moving up
after Castro was elected the island's president Feb. 24. He'll not only
be leading Cuba's armed forces but is also expected to apply his
business acumen to the country's ailing economy.

Castro's decision to surround himself with Casas and three other
generals at the top level of government underscores the vast trust that
the new president has in his military buddies, experts say. And while
the armed forces are unlikely to take on any more major business
initiatives -- that would hardly be possible -- the generals are
expected to become the masterminds of efficiency-minded plans to boost
the island's economy.

Cuba's 55,000 member Revolutionary Armed Forces is already in charge of
most of the business sectors, including hotels and domestic airlines.
With its top leaders now in some of the nation's highest positions of
power, its role in a post-Fidel Cuba is likely to be reinforced, experts
added.

Casas' promotion as one of five vice presidents in the ruling Council of
State is a prime example.

''Casas Regueiro was always considered someone who was somewhere he
should not be -- someone who got there through friendship,'' said José
Quevedo, a former general who now lives in Miami. ``Eventually, he
became the person who took advantage of military discipline for use in
business, and that showed results.

``He's more a businessman than soldier.''

MASTER OF LOGISTICS

Casas and Castro became close friends in the 1950s, when both were
members of Fidel Castro's ragtag army of guerrillas fighting to topple
Fulgencio Batista. Casas founded the rebel army's Sixth Column and the
National Police after the revolution's triumph in 1959. He participated
in the Bay of Pigs and later became the military's point man for logistics.

''He worked brilliantly,'' Raúl Castro said when he announced the
appointment. ``He [stood out] in a phase of the Air Force when we had a
vacuum and no one to name.''

Quevedo -- who was Casas' boss at one point -- said the now-72-year-old
distinguished himself managing logistics.

''He was repudiated by most of his own men,'' Quevedo said. ``Then the
economics of the armed forces was in his control, and he developed
purely logistical experience at the highest level. He's good at that.''

A former head of Cuba's Eastern Army -- one of the three main regional
divisions -- Casas was also first vice minister of defense. A veteran in
Cuba's involvement in Ethiopia, he is also a member of the Communist
Party's Political Buro and a member of the National Assembly since 1981.
He's been on the Council of State's central committee since 1998.

''I have criticized practically all the Armed Forces generals,'' Castro
told the Assembly.

``I do not recall having made a criticism in these past 50 years of
comrade Julio Casas, except that he is very stingy. But that's where he
gets his economic success.''

True enough: the former banker is credited with the Armed Forces'
so-called ''business perfection plan.'' He sent top military officers to
study hotel management and accounting abroad to bring home a sense of
efficiency and business expertise to the armed forces.

Soon, the FAR was not just running troops. Under Casas, the military
formed GAESA, the holding company that runs up to 60 percent of Cuban
state companies, including hotels, airlines and retail outfits.

His No. 2 in the company was Col. Luis Alberto Rodríguez, Raúl Castro's
son-in-law.

AN ECONOMIC FORCE

In a post-Soviet Cuba, the severely shrunk and equipment-short FAR is
not the military power it once was, but a money machine that's still one
of the government's most respected institutions.

Military enterprises now control an estimated 90 percent of the nation's
exports and 60 percent of its tourism revenue, and employ 20 percent of
state workers. Generals are in charge of several ministries, including
sugar and fisheries, and young conscripts work agricultural fields to
boost production.

Somewhere in Cuba, Raúl Castro said , there's a signed legal document
citing Casas as the only person with the right to veto the new
president's economic decisions.

''If you look at Casas Regueiro, he has played a role in every
state-owned enterprise -- tourism, agriculture, retail,'' said Dan
Erikson, a Cuba expert at the InterAmerican Dialogue in Washington, D.C.
``He's known to be tight-fisted in a penny-pinching sense in his
managerial style. He did a relatively good job in running a system that
by design is going to be inefficient and unproductive.''

Casas' business experience is critical, because Castro's chief task as
head of state is to save the nation's ailing economy. Cubans are growing
increasingly frustrated because of high prices and low salaries, and are
eager to see changes that would allow them more control over their
economic destinies.

''If there is an economic opening, the military will play a role in
that,'' Erikson said.

Castro has suggested that the solution to boosting Cuba's production and
economy is by relaxing some of the bureaucratic regulations that stifle
growth. But when he named old-timers to top positions of power, many
experts said it was a signal that reform is a long way off.

Besides Casas, Castro also promoted old-timers José Ramón Machado
Ventura, 77, as first vice president and Interior Minister Gen. Abelardo
Colomé, 68, to second vice president.

Western Army Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Frias and Alvaro López Miera, head of
the joint chiefs, were also named to the council. In a column published
last week, Fidel Castro said their appointments were his suggestion and
not a result of Raúl Castro's ``militaristic tendencies.''

But some say their appointments could just be a sign that Raúl Castro is
looking to spread that military efficiency and discipline to other
aspects of the economy.

Castro probably deliberately surrounded himself with military loyalists
so he could implement reforms in the context of socialism, said Hal
Klepak, a professor of military and war studies at the Royal Military
College of Canada who has studied and taught in Cuba.

''Casas Regueiro was the architect of military reform -- this is a sign
that the economy will be taken a bit more seriously,'' Klepak said.

``This is the man who sent military officers to Spain for MBAs. But he
is not going to upset the apple cart. The FAR's role is to hold the
reins while the politicians sort things out.

``If the reforms threaten the revolution, they will not be implemented.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/540/story/448226.html

Bill would keep Cuban-trained doctors from practicing in Florida

Bill would keep Cuban-trained doctors from practicing in Florida
Associated Press
4:23 PM EDT, March 18, 2008

Americans who get their medical degree in Cuba wouldn't be allowed to
practice medicine in Florida under a bill discussed by the House Health
Quality Committee.

The panel didn't vote on the bill (HB 685) but could as early as next week.

The measure is aimed at students who accept scholarships from the Cuban
government to attend the Latin American School of Medical Sciences in
Havana.

About 150 American students are currently enrolled in the school and
would be affected, according to information provided to the committee by
the bill sponsor, Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, R-Hialeah.

According to the information provided by Gonzalez, eight American
students have graduated from the school and are currently practicing in
the United States, but none are working in Florida. Since no graduates
of the program have Florida medical licenses, the bill would only affect
those graduates who try to become licensed here in the future.

The scholarship program, coordinated by an organization called the
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, takes advantage of
an exception in the U.S. embargo of Cuba for educational programs. The
scholarships are open to Americans who go to Cuba for a 6-year medical
school program and then agree to return to the United States to practice
medicine in poor or underserved communities in the United States.

If the measure were to pass, Florida would be the first U.S. state to
bar graduates of the program from practicing medicine here.

INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS

Lawmakers can't let current budget problems keep them from adequately
maintaining the state's roads, bridges and other infrastructure, a group
of engineers said.

Florida will need to spend $200 billion over the next 20 years to
maintain and improve its deteriorating infrastructure, according to a
report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The report gave the state letter grades in 11 different categories, with
an overall grade of C for the state's infrastructure. Bridges received
the highest grade with a B+, followed by wastewater systems with a B-.
The worst grades went to schools and energy, which both received a D+.

``Much of our infrastructure is sliding toward failure, and the prospect
for any real improvement is grim,'' said Fraser Howe, a board member for
the society's Florida chapter. ``If we treated our homes like we treat
our infrastructure, we'd all be living in 50-year-old block bungalows on
the verge of collapse.''

The state is underfunding its infrastructure and needs to develop a
major, long-term funding program, said Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando.
Possible funding sources could be an increase in gas taxes or a tax
based on the number of miles driven per year.

On the Net: Florida Legislature: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0318cuba-medschool,0,6560823.story

Cuban oil rigs could be built 45 miles off South Florida

Cuban oil rigs could be built 45 miles off South Florida
By Doreen Hemlock
Havana Bureau
March 17, 2008
Havana, Cuba

Imagine oil rigs drilling in deep waters just 45 miles off the coast of
South Florida. Refineries process the oil in Cuba and sell it across the
Caribbean and beyond. Canadian and Mexican companies supply billions of
dollars in equipment and services.

This could happen, as Havana is inviting foreign companies to explore
its probable oil and natural gas reserves while Washington's embargo
against the communist-led island keeps U.S. companies locked out.

South Florida is watching closely amid debate over drilling near its
shores and concerns about U.S. energy policy. Oil companies increasingly
seek to tap Cuba's deep-water reserves now that oil prices are soaring
and profits are more likely.

"In 34 years following Cuba, I've never seen an issue like this — so
strategically important to the United States," said Kirby Jones,
president of Washington-based Alamar Associates, who advises U.S.
companies on Cuba and opposes the U.S. embargo.

Cuba is courting oil investors to slash its dependence on foreign fuels.
The cash-strapped island can't afford to import all it needs, especially
with today's oil prices topping $100 a barrel. The island long relied on
the Soviet Union for subsidized oil and now depends on cheap supplies
from Venezuela that it pays for with services from its doctors and other
professionals.

Havana began opening to foreign investment in the early 1990s after the
loss of Soviet aid, and Cuba now produces almost half the oil and
natural gas it consumes. It drills mainly for heavy crude on or near
shore with help from Canadian companies.

But the big prize lies in deep-water reservoirs miles off the north
shore in the Gulf of Mexico. By some estimates, the area holds almost as
much oil and natural gas as the coveted Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
in Alaska — enough to meet Cuban demand for years.

Havana is forging deals with companies from Norway, Malaysia, India,
Vietnam, Spain and other nations to explore dozens of its 59 deep-water
blocks. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited in January
to seal contracts for Petrobras, the global leader in deep-water drilling.

Analysts say it will take several more years and hundreds of millions of
dollars for the companies to figure out where to drill in waters often a
mile deep.

But if the pieces fall into place, offshore rigs could be working by
2012 not far from South Florida, said Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, a Cuba
energy specialist at the University of Nebraska in Omaha who has visited
the island many times.

"Cuba also could become a transshipment point for oil, refined products
and exports for the region," Benjamin-Alvarado said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., aims to head off those possibilities and
keep drilling far from Florida shores. In a long-shot move, he seeks to
scrap a 31-year-old accord that splits the 90 miles of water between the
United States and Cuba and to redraw the boundaries.

"Soon, there could be oil rigs within 50 miles of the Florida Keys and
the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary," Nelson wrote the Bush
administration in late January, after Brazil's president met then-Cuban
leader Fidel Castro. "And, as the Gulf Stream flows, an oil spill or
other drilling accident would desecrate part of Florida's unique
environment and devastate its $50 billion tourism-driven economy."

Today, U.S. companies are the only ones banned from Cuba under terms of
Washington's 45-year-old embargo. All other nations trade with the
island, the Caribbean's largest.

The American Petroleum Institute, representing U.S. oil industry
companies, long has rejected go-it-alone sanctions like the embargo on
Cuba. It seeks greater access to oil reserves worldwide, a spokeswoman
in Washington said.

Just four years ago, talk of Cuba becoming a serious producer of
deep-water oil seemed far-fetched.

In 2004, Spain's Repsol announced offshore finds but deemed oil samples
from Cuba not commercially viable.

But since then, oil prices have reached new inflation-adjusted highs and
the economics of oil have changed.

Furthermore, recent events in Venezuela have raised concerns about how
long President Hugo Chavez can keep up oil largesse to Cuba, now
estimated to top $2 billion a year.

Cubans worry that if Venezuela cuts off cheap oil they'll suffer
widespread blackouts as they did after the Soviet Union halted oil aid
in the early 1990s. Back then, with fuel in short supply and cash tight,
lights went out up to 16 hours a day and bicycles often replaced cars.

"The recent high-profile visit by Brazil's President Lula was a way to
show there's an alternative to Chavez, who can be so unpredictable,"
Cuban economist and political dissident Oscar Espinosa Chepe said at his
Havana home.

"But there's a downside. If those companies find oil offshore, it could
delay economic changes needed in Cuba," said Espinosa Chepe, explaining
that a more financially secure regime could tighten control. "When
Chavez started providing oil, Fidel rolled back market-oriented reforms."

Cuba still faces hurdles to exploit its huge north basin reserves,
estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey at 4.6 billion to 9.3 billion
barrels of oil and almost 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Deep-water rigs are in short supply worldwide and expensive to use,
sometimes $200,000 a day or more. Companies in Cuban waters also may be
banned from using some cutting-edge U.S. technology because of the U.S.
embargo. Older technologies could make exploration more expensive,
Benjamin-Alvarado said.

As plans proceed, analysts are figuring out which U.S. companies stand
to lose the most.

Big U.S. oil producers likely won't be shut out permanently, said Jorge
Piñon, former president of Amoco Latin America and now an energy fellow
at the University of Miami's Center for Hemispheric Policy.

Should the U.S. embargo on Cuba end, U.S. behemoths could swap some of
their holdings with partners elsewhere, such as PetroVietnam, for their
partners' assets in Cuba.

The big losers likely would be U.S. oil equipment and service companies,
such as Halliburton, which would need to get in early. They would be
shut out of mega-contracts to build refineries, pipelines, ports and
other basics. And their competitors, including Canadian and Mexican
companies familiar with the Gulf of Mexico area, would be supplying food
and other services to the oil industry, Piñon said.

For many Cubans, concerns over offshore oil are more immediate, however.

"If they find oil, things can get better," said Antonio Villar, 34,
taking a break from hauling trash in a tractor-pulled cart in Havana
province. "We could have more industry. The cost of living would go
down. And there'd be more food to eat, more variety of food."

Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flzcubaoil0317sbmar17,0,3674945.story

Cuba's Communist Party encourages people to focus on hard work rather than luxuries

Cuba's Communist Party encourages people to focus on hard work rather
than luxuries
By Anita Snow | The Associated Press
March 15, 2008

Havana, Cuba - Cuba's leaders have a message for their people: Stop
dreaming and get to work.

Cubans are spending too much time waiting for reforms they hope will
bring luxuries such as electronics and trips, while what the country
needs to advance is the sweat of their brow, according to an editorial
in the ruling Communist Party newspaper Friday.

The editorial, penned by Granma newspaper director Lazaro Barredo,
appeared aimed at deflating expectations for change that have ballooned
since Raul Castro took over the presidency from his ailing brother Fidel
last month.

``I am worried that some people are waiting for the announcement of
specific measures that would immediately resolve household or spiritual
needs, or ones that would automatically lead to more consumption,''
Barredo wrote.

Many Cubans have interpreted Raul Castro's speeches to suggest that the
government will give people the right to buy computers, microwave ovens
and other electronics. Many also hope he will change a two-currency
system that leaves most Cubans with little buying power, and end
restrictions that make many tourist resorts off-limits to Cubans.

But Barredo wrote that without an improved economy, such changes cannot
be sustained.

``We can't expect more needs to be resolved if people don't work more,
if they don't produce more,'' he wrote, adding: ``Unfortunately, there
is a not-insignificant part of our society ... that wants to live
without working.''

The editorial implied that Cubans are unwilling to work to improve their
economic situation, said Cuba specialist Phil Peters of the Lexington
Institute, a pro-democracy think tank based outside Washington.

``I don't think the problem is that Cubans want to live better without
working for it,'' he said. ``The problem is that even by working hard,
Cubans cannot live because they are not paid enough to make a decent
living.''

When he replaced the 81-year-old Fidel as president on Feb. 24, Raul
Castro told people to expect that some of the ``excess of prohibitions
and regulations'' would be removed within weeks. He did not offer
specifics, but has said he wants to strengthen the peso, the currency
most Cubans earn.

Although Cubans buy subsidized goods and services with pesos, they need
convertible Cuban pesos-- which have 24 times the value --to buy things
like powdered milk, toilet paper and personal-care items.

No changes have been announced yet, but a document circulating among
foreign journalists in Cuba suggests the government plans to open the
sale of some electronic items. Currently, only foreigners and companies
are allowed to buy computers and many other electronics.

Lifting the ban would be largely symbolic, since most Cubans cannot
afford such electronics anyway.

The document, whose origin is unclear because it is not signed, dated or
addressed to anyone, says three stores in Havana will begin selling
television sets, electric pressure cookers, rice cookers, computers,
electric bicycles, car alarms and microwave ovens.

The government's official gazette, which publishes new decrees, had not
mentioned such a plan Friday. Several officials from the Interior
Commerce Ministry, which oversees retail sales on the island, said they
were unfamiliar with the memo.

The document states that beginning in April 2009, electric stoves with
one burner, electric frying pans, hot-water heaters, air conditioners
and electric shower heads will go on sale. Other items such as toasters
and deep fryers will be available in mid-2010, according to the memo.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-0315cuba,0,5859125.story

Cuba: not quite libre for business

Cuba: not quite libre for business
By Tom Stevenson
Last Updated: 1:01am GMT 24/02/2008

Wardour Street is a shadow of Old Havana but the band had just flown in
from Cuba and the bar was a replica of the one "Papa" Hemingway propped
up in the Batista years. Even mid-week, Floridita London was humming as
I sipped my Daiquiri with Max, the general manager.

Andrew Macdonald, whose dream it was to bring Havana's most famous bar
to the world's capitals, chooses his words carefully when discussing
this week's power shift in Havana. And so he might. As one of very few
British entrepreneurs doing business with Fidel Castro's communist
government, the chief executive of Havana Holdings, the company behind
the Floridita restaurant, music and cigars group, knows silence is
golden when it comes to Cuban politics.

"It's our policy never to comment on anything political, but it's fair
to say that the economy is opening up," he said as he set out from Soho
for his once-a-month flight to the Cuban capital. "Whether it's the
presidential succession or just the growth of the Cuban economy, I don't
know, but there's been a step change in the desire to do business."

Macdonald, and his brother Ranald, head of the clan Macdonald and a
major shareholder in the Boisdale restaurant group, have made it their
mission to bring the glamour and excitement of 1950s Havana to the rest
of the world. Launched in 2004 after three years of negotiations with
Castro's government, Floridita was named London's number one bar a year
after it opened.

The announcement of Cuba's new president today could mark the beginning
of the end of the island's experiment with communism under Fidel Castro,
who announced his resignation this week. Politically, it is a watershed,
but no one expects dramatic economic changes to happen overnight,
especially if power is transferred to Castro's 76-year-old younger
brother Raul, de facto leader for the last 18 months.

In theory, the end of Fidel's rule opens the door to reforms that the
younger Castro has hinted at over the past year and a half. Some changes
have already taken place, reflecting his admiration of the Chinese
model, where capitalist practices are allowed on the understanding that
the political system remains unchallenged.
advertisement

Cubans have been allowed to open restaurants in their homes and a
two-tier currency has emerged with domestic pesos trading side by side
with a convertible version. Tourism, the mainstay of the Cuban economy
after the decline of its sugar industry, demands a grudging engagement
with overseas capital.

But the key to lasting changes remains the end of the trade embargo
introduced by President Eisenhower in 1960 and strengthened by the
Helms-Burton Act of 1996 which precludes the US from recognising an
unelected Cuban government.

A relic of the Cold War, the embargo is so strict Cuba can't buy
equipment abroad if it includes more than 10pc American components.
Ships that dock in Havana are banned from US ports for six months.

The aim of the embargo was to strangle Cuba and force change in the
communist island 90 miles off America's Florida coast. Opponents of the
embargo believe it has had the opposite effect, giving Castro a bogeyman
on which to pin blame for his country's economic shortcomings. It has
certainly been self-defeating for American firms, preventing them from
investing in Cuba's oil industry, agriculture and tourism.

Cuba has been a remarkable survivor under Castro, with predictions of
its imminent collapse consistently proving to be over-optimistic. Even
when Cuba faced its greatest crisis, the collapse of the Soviet Union in
the early 1990s, Castro introduced just enough foreign investment and
dollar-earning tourism to fend off catastrophe. Recently, Venezuela's
President Chavez has ridden to the rescue, supplying the island with an
estimated $2.6bn of oil a year.

The State Department ruled out an early end to the embargo this week,
dismissing Castro's resignation as a "transfer of authority and power
from dictator to dictator light". Foreign firms and investors are
resigned to waiting for a less intransigent US administration or the
death of the Castros, or both.

Andrew Macdonald is surprised by the lack of interest in Cuba from
British companies. "In November, I attended the Havana Commercial Fair.
There were 900 companies from around the world and not one of them was
from the UK," he said.

Already enjoying a healthy Cuba trade is Virgin Atlantic, which has
flown twice a week to Havana for the past three years and is considering
increasing its flights. Paul Charles, a spokesman for the airline, says:
"It's a booming market, flights are full and it's a very popular
destination."

Other companies likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of a thawing in
relations between Cuba and the US include cruise line operators such as
Carnival and Royal Caribbean which could see thousands of tourists make
the short hop from Miami.

Imperial Tobacco's acquisition of Altadis last month puts the UK tobacco
giant in pole position to cash in on the American love affair with
cigars. The US consumes 50pc of the world's cigars and Altadis's 2000
acquisition of a 50pc stake in Habanos gives it control over some of the
world's leading brands, including Winston Churchill's favourite, Romeo y
Julieta. An Imperial spokesman said: "It is early days and it would be
inappropriate to comment on events in Cuba but we are very enthusiastic
about Habanos." One analyst said the end of the US embargo could add 2pc
to Imperial's earnings.

The Herzfeld Caribbean Basin fund, one of the few publicly quoted plays
on life after Castro, jumped by 17pc this week. It invests in around 20
countries around the Caribbean that will benefit if Cuba opens up.

After the US elections later this year a new era of détente looks
likely. Until then, wannabe Hemingways without the time or money to fly
to Havana can raise a mojito in Soho to a happier Cuba.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/02/24/cccuba124.xml

Lawyers still pursuing Cuban property cases

Lawyers still pursuing Cuban property cases
It's not as extensive as in years past, but several South Florida firms
continue to pursue Cuba-related legal work, hoping the investment one
day will pay off.
Posted on Sun, Feb. 24, 2008
BY NIALA BOODHOO
nboodhoo@MiamiHerald.com

George Harper remembers sponsoring the first Post-Castro Cuba conference
for the Florida Bar Association in 1992. Like many, he expected
democracy would come quickly to Cuba after the fall of the Soviet Union.

''I still have the brochure,'' he said, laughing, last week.

Nearly sixteen years later and with the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba
still in place, local lawyers like Harper still maintain a steady flow
of clients whom they advise on issues related to doing business in Cuba.
Some offer consulting on the 1996 Helms-Burton legislation, especially
to European and Latin American companies.

Helms-Burton not only establishes strict conditions that must be met
before the embargo can be lifted but also has a provision that allows
U.S. citizens and companies to sue foreigners ''trafficking'' in
confiscated Cuban properties for damages in U.S. federal courts.

That means some foreign companies are particularly wary of which Cuban
properties they should view as investment targets and often want legal
clarification.

Most in South Florida's legal community described Fidel Castro's
announcement last week that he would not seek reelection as president of
the Council of State as just another moment in series of moments for
those who have waited so long for the country to fully open to American
businesses.

But even without that opening, there is business for law firms.

Each new development always generates interest, and more inquiries for
law firms such as the Miami office of Akerman Senterfitt, said lawyer
Augusto Maxwell.

''Every time there's a headline, there are calls to try to get an
understanding of what the embargo is about, how it might change and what
we think about it,'' he said.

Still, the legal business regarding Cuba has waned from a decade ago,
said John Kavulich, a senior policy advisor to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and
Economic Council in New York.

''There were firms in the mid- and late '90s that did have Cuba practice
groups, but as Cuba reversed course on many of its commercial and
economic changes, the ability of lawyers to make a living based upon
preparing companies, and doing legal work'' dried up, he said.

The most lucrative legal work these days seems to be in filing paperwork
to register U.S. trademarks in Cuba, which firms all across the country
do, Kavulich said. Other lawyers work with the U.S. food and
agricultural companies on the limited business that is allowed by U.S. law.

''It's not a growth industry as it was from 1995 to maybe 2002,'' he said.

Nevertheless, there are Miami lawyers who have managed to keep their
Cuba practices growing.

Nicolás Gutiérrez, for example, says he has hundreds of clients who are
ready -- but waiting for the day when they can begin the legal process
of reclaiming their commercial property or businesses lost after the
1959 revolution.

During the 1960s, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission certified the
claims of nearly 6,000 American citizens and companies that lost
property in Cuba after the revolution. But Cuban-Americans aren't
covered under that process and will need to press their claims with a
future Cuban government.

EMBARGO REGULATIONS

At Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, lawyers such as Maxwell and his
colleague Pedro Freyre say they have a ''significant number'' of clients
they assist by providing information on embargo regulations. That
includes European companies that don't want to run afoul of Helms-Burton.

The lawyers also work on matters related to exceptions to the embargo
such as U.S. exports of food, agricultural products and pharmaceuticals
to the island for humanitarian reasons. Spending in Cuba by certain
groups, including academics, clerics, journalists, some on cultural
exchanges and Cuban-Americans visiting relatives, also is permitted as
an embargo exemption.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, commonly called
OFAC, enforces more than 20 economic and trade sanction programs for
countries around the world but its main focus has been Cuba.

''I would say the bulk [of the firm's Cuba work] is OFAC-related,''
Maxwell said. ``What we're beginning to grow now is two things: American
businesses who are interested in understanding what the law is, and
exile Cubans who are interested in understanding what rights they might
have for properties in Cuba.''

Antonio Zamora, who is of counsel at the Miami office of Squires Sanders
& Dempsey, said most people who called last week wanted to speculate
about what shifting the Cuban presidency would mean.

In the last couple of years, said Harper, companies have become
accustomed to the ''false starts'' in an opening toward Cuba. He pointed
to what he called the calm and blasé reaction to last week's news as
proof that many recognize it is still business as usual in Cuba.

Harper, managing partner at Harper Meyer, focuses mostly on
inter-American law. He estimates about a third of his client load now is
directly related to Cuban work.

But, ''when you talk about all different clients we have, everything
from fast-food operations to transportation [companies], they're all
going to be interested in Cuba,'' he said.

One day, added Gutiérrez of the Miami firm Borgoynoni & Gutiérrez, the
embargo will be lifted, and the Cuban-related work -- now just a
sub-speciality in his corporate and government practice -- will explode.

EXILES PASS ON

In recent times he has watched a generation of exiles, including his
father, pass away. Many of his clients are now coming in to sign
affidavits, legal descriptions of property they say they owned in Cuba
with instructions who they would like to leave it to when they die -- in
case they do not survive until the embargo is lifted.

And Gutiérrez, like many other South Florida lawyers, continues to wait
for the day when he will be able to represent clients in Cuban courts.

''Somewhere between when my two young kids are in high school or I
retire, it has to happen,'' he said.

Mimi Whitefield, a Miami Herald business editor, contributed to this story.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/431107.html

Tourism 'golden era' ends in Cuba

February 21, 2008
Tourism 'golden era' ends in Cuba
Travellers interested in visiting Cuba are being advised to go now
before an invasion of American tourists begins
Tom Chesshyre

Tour operators believe that the US travel embargo of Cuba could be
lifted in the wake of this week's announcement that Fidel Castro is
stepping down - ending a "golden era" of tourism to the Caribbean island.

Companies say that Castro's departure is likely to combine with a more
open approach to the island after November's presidential elections.
This could bring an end to the US travel ban. The embargo has been in
place since Castro took charge in an armed revolution 49 years ago and
introduced communism. The effect has been to keep mainstream
Westernisation out of the country.

But this week each of the main Amertican presidential contenders -
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain - said that they would
consider a softer approach towards Cuba, but only if political prisoners
were released.

Obama said that the US "must be prepared to begin taking steps to
normalise relations and to ease the embargo of the past five decades".
Related Links

News of Castro's departure on Tuesday had an immediate effect on tour
operators, with people booking trips to see the country before it
changes. "It's been mad," said John Faithfull, of Trips Worldwide, a
Cuba specialist. Bookings with the company have risen by a third since
Castro's last public appearance 19 months ago.

"It looks likely that the embargo will be reviewed and relaxed under a
new US president. It's not a question of that happening immediately, but
it could happen in a year or two," he said. "When the embargo is over,
I'm not sure where Cuba will find the beds to accommodate its new guests."

Cheapflights.co.uk reported that searches for Cuba have increased
eight-fold this year compared with last, with 43,984 enquiries. This
week it was attracting as many as 900 website hits a day.

A spate of new five-star hotel openings, some in former colonial
mansions, is already attracting more upmarket tourists. The Saratoga in
Havana, the capital, the Iberostar Grand Hotel in Trinidad, and Royal
Hideaway in Ensenachos have been especially popular.

Vesella Baleva, product manager for Cuba at Cox & Kings, said: "The end
of the embargo would make it touristy. There's a charm now as it's not
crowded with Americans. These are the golden years."

Virgin Atlantic began flying to Cuba in 2005 and holiday bookings
increased by a fifth last year. Cheapest fortnight packages cost as
little as £871 from Cosmos Holidays.

http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3411007.ece

Cuba oil production dropping, expert says

Cuba oil production dropping, expert says
Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:11pm GMT

MIAMI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Cuba's oil production, which peaked at 65,000
barrels per day in 2003, has fallen to 51,300 bpd due to declining
output from the country's primary oil field, a Miami-based energy expert
said on Friday.

Jorge Pinon, a former oil company executive and now energy fellow at the
University of Miami, said the Varadero field, east of Havana, has been
depleted by years of pumping.

"Varadero field was discovered in the 1970s. This is a very old oilfield
and that field is going through its natural decline," Pinon said at
conference on Cuba at Florida International University.

Pinon said Sherritt International (S.TO: Quote, Profile, Research), a
Canadian joint venture partner with Cubapetroleo (Cupet), is planning to
use enhanced recovery methods to squeeze more oil from Varadero.

The 51,300 bpd average includes oil and liquids produced from natural
gas processing, he said. The latter accounts for 1,200 to 1,500 bpd, he
added.

He said the cost of producing oil in Cuba is about $1.77 a barrel.

Pinon said Cuba consumes about 145,000 bpd, with 90,000 of that imported
from Venezuela.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by David Gregorio)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2225864920080222

From Socialist Paradise to Ethanol Republic?

February 22, 2008, 3:09 pm
Cuba: From Socialist Paradise to Ethanol Republic?
Posted by Keith Johnson
Guevara_blog_20080222145959.jpg
Venderemos! (Wikipedia)

In the wake of El Comandante's decision to turn Cuba over to his brother
Raul, speculation over the island's future has been rife, including
here. But the idea that post-Castro Cuba, free of the U.S. embargo and
Cold War posturing, could revive its battered sugar industry and someday
become a major ethanol exporter has a few Environmental Capital readers
horrified:

Perhaps Cuba will decide that it prefers its self-sufficient
economy and sustainable agriculture model and not turn its farmland into
a gas station for the U.S. And maybe the real best case scenario
actually involves the U.S. learning to get by with using a heck of a lot
less energy [Anne Morgan]

Cuba has an enormous opportunity to resist that [ethanol] model and
focus on fostering its own economy, creating jobs and small businesses
through sustainable development of its home-grown talent and resources.
Not become like its neighboring islands, which remain poor and
underdeveloped because their leaders chose subservience to multinational
globalization over sustainable development [Vivian D.]

Just a couple of problems with that, suggests Antonio Gayoso, another of
the academics at the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy.
Cuba is presently neither self-sufficient nor sustainable. According to
Cuban government figures, it imports about 85% of its food. The collapse
of the country's sugar industry has left huge swaths of cropland overrun
by a type of Caribbean kudzu.

The good news, such as it is, is that Cuba should be spared the
food-versus-fuel debate that wracks other developing countries, and
which is putting a crimp (for better or for worse) in biofuel
development from Latin America to Southeast Asia. In Cuba, Mr. Gayoso
says, ethanol means food:

[C]lose to 2 million hectares of land could be used in the future
for an integrated sugar industry: one that could produce sugar, ethanol,
paper, cattle feed, and other products without competing for foodstuff
cropland, provided that a return to earlier productivity levels are
achieved… thus permitting a higher capacity to import foodstuff that
Cuba cannot produce for ecological reasons.

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/02/22/cuba-from-socialist-paradise-to-ethanol-republic/?mod=googlenews_wsj