Business & Economy

The Central Bank of Cuba took the lock off some 600 accounts belonging to foreign suppliers with funds estimated at US $1 billion that had been frozen since the beginning of the year. The action will allow the firms to continue operations on the island.

Cuba’s Labiofam Business Group acquired all the shares of Bio Vietnam, part of which belonged to a British partner. With this the firm hopes to expand its production and services capacity, reported the China’s People’s Daily. Labiofam’s most important products include the Bativec larvicide and Biorat, to eliminate rats.

The Cuban government has decided to decentralize expenditures in hard currency for imports, which will now be managed by the individual ministries instead of a single centralized super account, reported Mexico’s La Jornada newspaper on Monday.

Cuban agricultural authorities have delivered in usufruct just under 670,000 hectares of land, in compliance with Decree Law 259, which last year established the granting of idle state land to cooperatives and persons interested in making them produce.

Four new tanks, each with a capacity for 20,000 cubic meters, are being built in the Cienfuegos oil refinery. The investment is considered fundamental for the projected increase in production at the renovated plant, restored jointly by Cuba and Venezuela.

Brazil will issue a loan for US $300 million to build a new port in Mariel, 40 kilometers west of the Cuban capital. Miguel Jorge, the South American country’s minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade also announced Thursday that Petrobras, the giant Brazilian state oil company, will open an office in Havana next week.

Pulling out the stops, Cuba is seeking to diversify its exports, but it’s not an easy road. The country’s technology is obsolete in many of its industries. The present global crisis is forcing the country to pick up the pace since it urgently needs to increase its foreign revenues.

A delegation of Brazilian business executives, headed by Miguel Jorge, the minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, arrives in Cuba on Wednesday to try and kick start bilateral commerce and investment.

With a total of 41,904 visitors in 2008, the United States ranked ninth on the list of principal tourist markets for Cuba, a list that Canada heads with a wide margin, with 818,000 tourists, reported the National Office of Statistics (ONE).