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Frustration for U.S.
investors
Livia Rodríguez Delis
• THE blockade
maintained by the United
States against Cuba for
almost half a century
frustrated more than
3,500 potential direct
investments by U.S.
business people in Cuba
between 1999 and 2007,
according to Raciel
Proenza, director of the
North America Department
of Cuba’s Ministry of
Foreign Investment and
Economic Cooperation (MINVEC)
in Havana.
At a press conference on
the blockade’s effects
on foreign investment
and economic
cooperation, the
official said that
during that period,
those businesspeople
made 3,576 visits to the
island, most of them in
2006 (806 visits). Last
year, due to increased
restrictions, only nine
U.S. businesspeople
visited Cuba.
Proenza said that
because of the U.S.
blockade, the island
does not have access to
the cutting-edge
technology that U.S.
companies have; exports
by joint ventures in
Cuba are not allowed
into the U.S. market,
and it is impossible to
obtain financing for the
development of direct
foreign investment
projects in our country.
As a result of the
intensification of the
criminal blockade, Cuba
will continue to
experience problems with
access to U.S.-made
medicines for children
and adults with HIV, the
MINVEC official said.
He also said that Cuba
is not benefiting from
international flows of
direct foreign
investment.
According to an analysis
of investment flows
received by some Central
American and Caribbean
countries, Cuba — if it
was not blockaded —
could have received
closed $232 million from
the United States.
The expert affirmed that
the U.S. blockade has
also affected Cuba’s
participation in
international events as
a member of the World
Association of
Investment Promotion
Agencies (WAIPA).
In 2007, he said, the
Swiss bank UBS did not
accept Cuba’s membership
dues payment for that
year to participate in
WAIPA’s annual
conference. This had a
number of consequences,
including the absence of
Cuban representatives at
the international
conferences organized by
that group to promote
cooperation among
investment promotion
agencies.
Proenza said that,
likewise, Cuba has no
access to financing from
the World Bank or the
Inter-American
Development Bank, which
in 2007 approved loans
worth $4.6 billion and $
9 billion, respectively,
for programs and
projects in Latin
America and the
Caribbean.
The MINVEC official also
noted that in 2006, as
part of intensifying its
policy of economic
warfare on Cuba, the
White House allocated
$116 million to promote
subversion in Cuba and
to finance terrorist
groups based in the city
of Miami, via the US
Agency for International
Development (USAID).
In face of this
situation, Proenza said,
the Ministry of Foreign
Investment and Economic
Cooperation was obliged
to reject 23 offers from
organizations associated
with funds from USAID
and these Miami
factions.
Translated by Granma
International
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