The footwear industry in Cuba will benefit from an injection of capital from China. The Asian giant invests more and more in the island’s industry, and the Combell footwear company, in Santiago de Cuba, will be one of the first to experience the benefits of this interest, explained its director, Zoe Cabello.
From the visit From Miguel Díaz-Canel to Beijing, last November, Cuba fully entered what Xi Jinping called a “community of shared destiny.” Both presidents signed agreements that guaranteed the sending of Chinese money for areas as dissimilar as biotechnology, the economy, cybersecurity and espionage. In addition, Xi “gifted” Díaz-Canel an “emergency” donation of 100 million dollars, which the Cuban government received in January.
In addition, Xi “gave” Díaz-Canel an “emergency” donation of 100 million dollars, which the Cuban government received in January
Since then, the already important Chinese presence in the key points of the Cuban economy has only grown, and involves from the locomotive repair until the information sharing “at the highest level”.
Investment from China is the last hope of Cabello and his shoe company, along with the contracts he signed with the Armed Forces to stay afloat, based on “new services,” this year.
Combell must repair, in each of its three plants –located in Palma Soriano, Contramaestre and Santiago de Cuba– the Colossus boots used by the Cuban military. In addition, he promised to manufacture 5,000 pairs of women’s shoes, essential for the military uniform, says Cabello.
However, they are short of threads, jigs, fabrics and needles, which they also hope China will send them to overcome “the greatest difficulty in light industry today”: the lack of resources. On the other hand, they hope that a producer of leather and prefabricated soles in Villa Clara, and a private businesswoman dedicated to manufacturing saddle sheets in Camagüey also contribute raw materials to the factory.
The objective, Cabello calculates, is to collect 50 million pesos for the repair and manufacture of footwear, in addition to the profits from sales in retail establishments.
The lack of materials also took away the production plan for 2022 of the Provincial Laboratory of Technical Orthopedics in Camagüey, which was barely met by 6.7%. The authorities blamed the company’s lack of financial capacity entirely on the US embargo.
The shoe manufacturing line is the most affected, lament Jorge Guerra Ruiz, director of the center, since they only delivered 164 of the 2,425 expected pairs. They also stopped the production of corsets and prostheses due to the lack of inputs such as resin or powdered plaster.
Guerra Ruiz assured that the company made prostheses reusing parts of some old ones and “other innovations” thanks to the “inventiveness” of the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers
Guerra Ruiz assured that the company made prostheses reusing parts of some old ones and “other innovations” thanks to the “inventiveness” of the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers, and the Youth Technical Brigades.
The official press quotes Francisco de Jesús Rodríguez, who suffers from coxarthrosis of the hip due to the shortening of one leg and needs special footwear that he could not obtain, since the center lacked the necessary materials to adapt his shoes.
The money sent by China at the beginning of November, while Díaz-Canel undertook the “alms tour” to Beijing, guaranteed the distribution of school uniforms for this academic year. Faced with the deficit, the president of the Light Industry business group, Mirla Díaz Fonseca, pointed out that without Chinese investment it would not have been possible to distribute 1,274,000 garments to students, and even so there was an unsatisfied demand for 2,153,310 pieces of uniform throughout the island.
At the beginning of the year, Cuba promised China a quarterly accountability, to “systematically check the implementation of the consensus and agreements closed in November” by Díaz-Canel.
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