Brazil to Finance New Cuban Port

HAVANA TIMES, July 10 — Brazil will issue a loan for US $300 million to build a new port in Mariel, 40 kilometers west of the Cuban capital, informed Miguel Jorge, the South American country’s minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

Jorge said the investment includes a railroad line, road, buildings, dikes, piers and dredging, reported IPS.

The top ranking official also announced Thursday that Petrobras, the giant Brazilian state oil company, will open an office in Havana next week. The company has been carrying out seismic studies in the block it acquired in Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2008.