USA PRESIDENT HISTORIC TRIP TO CUBA FOR INVESTORS

American President Obama & Cuban President Castro in Old Havana

USA PRESIDENT OPEN CUBA FOR AMERICAN BUSINESS

HAVANA CUBA: USA President Barack Obama arrived in Hanana Cuba on Sunday on a historic 88 year old visit that begins a new chapter in U.S.-Cuba Business Investment with the island's Communist government after five long decades of animosity between the two American neighbors. President Obama landed at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport aboard Air Force One, the presidential jet with "United States of America" across the side which is a sight almost a miracle not long ago.  Obama & his family stepped onto the red carpet in the Havana rain. Obama and his family, smiling broadly and with umbrellas in hand, were greeted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez who is the first Cuban to welcome a USA president in over 88 years. They then stepped into a black armored limousine that was flow in from Washington, with U.S. and Cuban flags on the hood, and headed out in their Cuba-USA motorcade.

Th is is the first trip to Cuba by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years, after 18 months of diplomatic openings announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban revolution ousted a pro-American government in 1959.  Obama, who abandoned a longtime U.S. policy of trying to isolate Cuba, wants to make this US-Cuba shift irreversible. But major obstacles remain to full normalization of ties, and the Democratic president's critics at home say the visit is premature.

Traveling with first lady Michelle Obama, her mother and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, the president was to visit the newly reopened U.S. Embassy and then play tourist on his first night on the Caribbean island, taking in the sights of Old Havana. He will hold talks with Raul Castro – but not his brother Fidel, the revolutionary leader - and speak to entrepreneurs on Monday. He meets privately with dissidents, addresses Cubans live on state-run media and attends an exhibition baseball game on Tuesday.  With over five decades of hostility between Washington and Havana president Obama is making World History as the first sitting American president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge arrived on a battleship in 1928.

US BUSINESS OPENS IN CUBA

It is also another major step in chipping away at remaining barriers to U.S.-Cuba trade and travel and developing more normal relations between Washington and Havana.  Obama and his family will have a tour of Havana followed by a
State Dinner and a Cuban All Star baseball game followed by his First TV address directly to teh people of Cuba on Cuban TV tonight at 10pm.

Since last year the two sides have restored diplomatic ties and signed commercial deals on telecommunications and over 100 flights with regular airline service.  CUBA has also announced that it has signed business Joint Ventures with Starwood hotels & Resorts as well as expanded Private room bookings with Air BnB of USA. Soon many other American companies will be opening Cuban investments with the blessing of the American and Cuban governments




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CUBA INVESTMENTS-THE REAL TRUTH

Cuba Investment Nightmare

CUBA INVESTMENTS THE DARK SIDE

Open Letter CUBA INVESTMENTS from Coral Capital Steven Purvis warning investors about his experience as to the nightmare in investing in the Cuba The REAL STORY!

DEAR CUBAN INVESTMENTS

 I enjoyed reading about my misfortunes in the Economist, albeit many months after publication and in the company of fellow inmates in the Cuban high security prison, La Condesa. I would ask you to correct the impression that you give in the May 9th 2012 edition and subsequent articles that I was accused and detained for corruption.

During my 8 month interrogation in the Vila Marista I was accused of many things, starting with revelations of state secrets, but never of corruption. After a further 7 months held with a host of convicted serious criminals and a handful of confused businessmen, most of whom were in a parallel predicament to mine, I was finally charged and sentenced for participating in various supposed breaches of financial regulations. The fact that the Central bank had specifically approved the transactions in question for 12 years, and that by their sentencing the court has in effect potentially criminalized every foreign business investing or trading in Cuba was considered irrelevant by the judges. I am thankful however that the judges finally determined that my sentence should not only have with a conditional release date a few days before the trail thus conveniently justifying my 15 months in prison, but, bizarrely was to be non-custodial. So my Kafkaesque experience at the sharp end of Cuban justice ended as abruptly as it began.

I spent time with a number of foreign businessmen arrested during 2011 and 2012 from a variety of countries, although representatives from Brazil, Venezuela and China were conspicuous in the absence. Very few of my fellow sufferers have been reported in the press and there are many more in the system than is widely known. As they are all still either waiting for charges, trial or sentencing they will certainly not be talking to the press. Whilst a few of them are being charged with corruption many are not and the accusations range from sabotage, damage to the economy, tax avoidance and illegal economic activity. It is absolutely clear that the war against corruption may be a convenient political banner to hide behind and one that foreign governments and press will support. But the reasons for actively and aggressively pursuing foreign business are far more complicated.  Why for example is the representative of Ericsson in jail for exactly the same activities as their Chinese competitor who is not? Why for example was one senior European engineer invited back to discuss a potential new project only to be arrested for paying technical workers five years ago when he was a temporary resident in Cuba?

You interpret the economic liberalization evident at street level as an indication of a desire for fundamental change. It is true that these reforms are welcomed, especially the dramatic increase in remittance flows that have injected fresh hard currency into the bottom strata of a perennially cash strapped economy. But until the law relating to foreign investment and commerce is revised and the security service changes its modus operandi for enforcing these laws, Cuba will remain extremely risky for non-bilateral foreign business and foreign executives should be under no illusion about the great personal risks they run if they chose to do business there.  As businessmen emerge from their awful experience and tell their individual stories perhaps the real reasons for this concerted attack against business’s and individuals that have historically been friends of Cuba will become a bit clearer. In the meantime your intrepid reporters could usefully investigate the individuals and cliques who are benefiting from the market reorganization and newly nationalized assets resulting from this “ war on corruption”.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Purvis

CUBA REAL ESTATE INVESTOR 

GOLF INVESTMENT IN CUBA

Varadero Cuba Golf Course In Cuba

CUBA OPEN TO GOLF INVESTMENTS
Cuba is hoping to attract golf-playing tourists to Cuba with the hope of eventually even U.S. golfers. The government took big steps in that direction by allowing foreign investors that enjoy golfing and want to invest in Cuba to lease state lands for 99 years instead of the previous limit of 50 years.

The extension is expected to make Cuba a more attractive place for foreign developers, who already have detailed plans for at least four golf resorts with seven courses — including a $1 billion project.

Some foreign investors have been reluctant to commit to the projects because the 50-year limit was too short and risky, said Antonio Zamora, a Miami lawyer who researches Cuban real estate issues.

"I think most of them will be okay with the 99-year leases, although others have told me they will not do it" without full ownership rights, Zamora said.

The Official Gazette last week published Decree Law 273, signed by Raul Castro on July 19, allowing 99-year leases on properties for foreign investors though the government still owns the land. The previous limit set in 1987 was 50 years, though renewals were allowed.

Still unclear are many issues, such as the right to sell or inherit the properties built on the leased state lands.

The Cuban government owns the overwhelming majority of the land on the island, though some Cubans who owned small properties before the Castro revolution in 1959 have been allowed to keep them.

But the decision by Castro, who also has been allowing small but growing doses of private enterprise by Cubans, could give a quick boost to tourism development plans.

The U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would lift the ban on tourism travel to Cuba, and the Obama administration is expected to allow a growing number of educational and cultural trips to the island.

Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero announced in August that the government had approved the creation of 16 golf resorts, ringed by thousands of condos and villas to be sold only to foreigners.

Cuba has only one 18-hole course and one nine-hole course, while the Dominican Republic has two dozen.

Foreign developers are already well along on proposals for four golf resorts on Cuba's north coast, including the estimated $1 billion La Altura mega-project in Bahia Honda west of Havana.

The project, proposed by British and Spanish developers, calls for three golf courses surrounded by about 3,000 housing units and a marina with 200 slips, according to documents obtained by El Nuevo Herald.

Another group is proposing two golf courses with about 2,000 housing units in the Guardalavaca beach area in Holguin province.

In the Varadero beach resort 100 miles east of Havana, British groups are proposing one development with a golf course and about 900 housing units.

The Bellomonte project on Guanabo beach, just east of Havana, calls for about 800 units ringing one golf course, plus a small marina.

Cuba recorded 2.4 million foreign tourists last year, a slight increase over 2008, although revenues have been falling as the euro and British pound lost value and a growing number of visiting Cuban exiles chose to stay with relatives.

The government first allowed foreigners to invest in an estimated 17 luxury condominium developments in Havana in 1995, but then-President Fidel Castro later halted the building program.

Many of the condo buildings were on or near Havana's Fifth Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Miramar, the capital's fanciest neighborhood before Castro seized power in 1959.