Business & Economy

NBA player Gary Payton will participate in the 15th Habano Festival, to be held this week at Havana’s Convention Center. In addition to Payton, one of the best point guards in the NBA in the ‘90s and 2000s, attendance has been announced by German tennis player Boris Becker and Italian tenor Dario Balzanelli, considered the heir to Luciano Pavarotti.

Russia agreed to sell Cuba eight commercial airliners valued at a total of about $650 million, as well as forgive an undisclosed part of the $30 billion debt that Moscow claims is owed it by the island, reported the Russian media on Thursday during the visit of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev to Havana.

Characterized by economic reforms and political stagnation, over his seven years in power, Raul Castro has promoted a series of changes in Cuba aimed at bringing the island out of chronic economic crisis without relinquishing its one-party socialist model, in place since 1959, reported DPA news on Friday.

The Cuban government is making lending to the island’s “self-employed” sector more flexible with new measures that include the acceptance of personal goods/property as collateral for loans, reported the official media on Thursday.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived today in Cuba in a working visit focused on boosting trade and strengthening economic ties between the two countries, according to the Russian government.

Russian Prime Minister, Dmitri Medvedev, will visit Cuba on Feb. 21-22 and meet with President Raul Castro. The PM will also visit Brazil the day before arriving in Havana, reports DPA news.

The promoters of a Cuban music festival in Miami won their lawsuit against the Homestead-Miami Speedway organization for it having canceled the event in April 2011.

Cuban authorities succeeded in confiscating more than three tons of drugs in 2012, mostly marijuana that washed ashore, according to figures released today in the official Granma newspaper, reported DPA news.

Representatives of the governments of Cuba and Finland signed an agreement in Havana on Tuesday to resume bilateral cooperation. Finland suspended cooperation with Cuba in 2003 to comply with the sanctions imposed on the island by the European Union following the imprisonment of 75 dissidents.

According to the organizers, the event will promote Cuban exports and identify opportunities for local and regional joint ventures, highlighting those sectors involved in food, textiles, construction, technology and services.