the cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez held a meeting this Saturday with Turkish businessmen at the end of his international tour, according to official media on the island.
The meeting was held during the stopover of the Cuban president through the Turkish city of Istanbul, on his way back to Cuba after leaving China, according to a report of the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
Businessmen from Türkiye, a country where the Cuban president had already made a previous stay in your journeywere convened by DEIK, the Business Diplomacy Organization that directs the foreign economic relations of the private sector of that nation.
The purpose of the dialogue was to “promote ideas and projects that allow increasing the relationship of Turkish businessmen with Cuba,” says the Twitter account of the Cuban Presidency, quoted by the news office.
The purpose of the meeting is to promote ideas and projects that allow increasing the relationship of Turkish businessmen with Cuba??, commented the President @DiazCanelB. pic.twitter.com/vUzhExqyR6
— Presidency Cuba ?? (@PresidenciaCuba) November 26, 2022
During the exchange, Díaz-Canel offered an overview to his interlocutors about the potential of the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZDEM)which the island’s authorities promote as the main focus of attraction for foreign investment in the country.
In turn, Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign trade and Foreign Investment, explained to the Turkish businessmen the main projects included in the new Portfolio of Business Opportunities in Cuba, as well as their potential for the foreign sector, points out the ACN.
Executives from various companies in Turkey expressed their interest in exploring these possibilities to enter the island’s economy, participating in businesses related to the energy, biotechnology and tourism sectors.
The Cuban Head of State and the high-level delegation that accompanies him arrived in Istanbul, after concluding their official visit to Chinathe last stop on his international tour that also took him to Algeria and Russia.
In the Asian nation, Díaz-Canel met with the country’s main leaders, including President Xi Jinping, with whom he held a private conversation valued by the Cuban president as “fruitful and transparent,” according to his statements to the press that accompanies.
It also transpired that in that meeting the subject of the tense economic situation facing the Island was addressed, plunged into a deep and prolonged crisis, aggravated by the impact of the pandemic, the sanctions imposed with the United States, and the ineffectiveness of the measures adopted by the Cuban executive to overcome the complex situation.
In the context of the visit, China donated 100 million dollars to Cuba that will be used “in priorities of our people,” according to what Cuban Vice Prime Minister Alejandro Gil, one of the six ministers that make up the delegation, told national television.
He is also the owner of Ministry of Economy and Panification (MEP) He also highlighted the signing of 12 bilateral agreements and the reopening of new financing lines that will allow the conclusion of several projects, such as the floating dock that began in 2019.
“This investment is practically completed, but some adjustments were pending,” Gil considered in his statements cited by the agency.
Chinese and Cuban officials also agreed on the financial formulas to conclude other projects, such as the program to reconvert or modernize the press on the island, the Herradura wind farm, in the eastern part of the country, and a photovoltaic solar park with the capacity to generate more of 100 megawatts.
According to Gil, “there was understanding” by the Chinese side regarding the debt contracted by Cuba and that could not be paid in full.
“We are going to bring positions closer so that we can find mutually acceptable formulas for the ordering and restructuring of debts,” said the main authority on the economy in the Caribbean nation.
As he remembers the ACNCuba was, in 1960, the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, founded in 1949. Currently, that Asian country is one of the largest economic partners and political allies of the Island.
