Cuba Opens Doors To Limited Foreign Investments

• Khalid Al Mansoor
• . August 17, 2022
• . Update: August 23, 2022 7:24 pm
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Cuba–Breaking its own tradition, Cuba is all willing to allow foreign investment into its wholesale and retail trade, for the first time in 60 years. Going against its 1960s Fidel Castro policy of nationalising retail, this is going to be huge development for the island country.

Undeniably, Cuba has been facing the most severe economic crisis in decades, with rising prices and public discontent. Post Covid-19, things have not got better for most nations, barring a few that have shown a growth curve overall.

With this new development, Cuba is going to allow foreign investors to own the Cuban wholesalers partially or wholly but will keep it restricted to food and medicine production as of now. The government does not have intentions of levying full control.

According to foreign trade minister Betsy Diaz Valezquez, ‘retail will not be open to international investors without scrutiny as a state market has to prevail.’

Meanwhile, the Trump era sanctions will also be relaxed by the Biden administration. Economy minister Alejandro Gil said the move will allow for the “expansion and diversification of supply to the population and contribute to the recovery of domestic industry.” In 1969, Fidel Castro nationalised Cuba’s private wholesale and retail industry. The new foreign investment bill, however, recognises that the country’s centralised government cannot resolve its essential goods shortage without investment from overseas.

Now, businesses that have been established in Cuba for a long time will also be prioritized. Government officials have confirmed that they have full intentions of prioritizing deals with businesses selling green energy technologies and equipment that could boost domestic production.

This is a progress that is going to work for Cuba now at such times, when global economies are thriving across the length and breadth of the globe.