LIST OF CUBA INVESTMENTS

Invest in Havana Cuba and Varadero Hotels, Condos & Resorts

 INVEST IN CUBA INVESTMENTS

Cuba Tourism Hotels & Resorts

Tourism in Cuba is the 1 area of investment for international hotel & Resort companies that want a future presence into the very profitable Cuban tourism industry. Melia Hotel & Resorts, Accor and Publicly traded Sherritt International are the leaders in this hot investment sector of tourism in Cuba. Foreign involvement in Cuban tourism has many smaller travel agencies and tour representatives who have offices in Cuba as well as most major tourism based travel vacation airlines that offer flights to Varadero, Santiago, Cayo Coco & Havana Cuba.

The Cuban tourism ministry is keen to attract further foreign investment for various hotel developments in order to prepare for the eventual changing of the US travel ban which will be lifted in the next year. The lifting of the American Travel Embargo against Cuba would generate millions of American tourist. Cuban tourism authorities are seeking investment from International hotel & resort developers that want to build hotels outside of Havana and Varadero beach.

Real Estate In Cuba

 HAVANA. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cuba keeps changing the rules in the right direction as many new apartment buildings were opened to foreign investment and ownership in 1995.  There are two primary JV's involved in commercial real estate. These are Inmobiliaria Monte Baretto S. A. and Inmobiliaria Aurea S. A. , both with international investors and foreign shareholders, which have developed the Miramar world Trade centre and La Lonja del Comercio for retail and commercial rental of office space. 

Currently real estate is limited to Cubans but this could change very soon as Cuba continues to open the real estate investment opportunities to foreigners. Opportunities in the residential market have been pursued by Canadian Publicly traded company Lesiure Canada, one of the shareholders in the largest commercial real estate project (Monte Baretto)

Oil & Gas In Cuba

Sherritt International is the main investor in this sector with over $900 Million in investment in Cuba. Cuba is seeking investment in new project for energy alternatives and will give very quick replies to foreign investors that have good ides, New Technology and available financing. Oil and gas service companies have gone bust but they continue to present their services in oil & gas exploration.

Cuban Agriculture

 Sugar and fruit are the main foreign investors with deep investments in citrus fruits with the largest Investor being an Israeli group which has recently reduced its interest.  Ethanol & Biomass energy conversion plants is another priority for the Cuban government with discussions between Brazil and Venezuela.

Banking Financing In Cuba

Cuban President, Raul Castro, has allowed European and Canadian banks in Cuba for many decades participating in trade and financial deals since the early 1990’s.  Even in Travel & health Insurance, Heath Lambert and Lloyds of England have been the leader in Cuban Insurance and  re–insurance of certain higher Cuban insurance risks such as project and infrastructural debt financing which is a strategic area for attracting foreign investment. Cuban bank President under Castro will facilitate meetings from interested investment groups.
 

Cuba Investment Funds

The list of Cuban investment funds and other investment vehicles is short. Currently investing in Cuban fixed income debt as well as equity investments is the only possibility that international investment  Funds have in Cuba investments. The only investment companies that are investing in Cuba are Leisure Canada, Ceiba Finance and Coral Capital (UK registered) which has their two top executives in Jail for corruption charges. European investments has also been reported by a very small German fund called Kuba Investments.

New Cuba investment funds are encouraged to establish good relationships and a physical  presence in Cuba. Many interesting  projects at different stages of development are seeking financing and capital investments long as the investment company has passed the approval process with the Cuban authorities.

Cuban Biotechnology

This is an area where Cuba really can make a difference since Fidel Castor invested over $300 Million to create a world class bio-technology research center on this Cuban island paradise. York Medical and smith Kline and several other biotech firms have invested large sums of money and signed research agreements to develop certain drugs with Cuban biotech entities called CIMAB S. A. and CIGB S.A. Cuba has also several agreements to manufacture international vaccine treatments with Iran, Brazil, China and most recently  with India’s Biocon Bio-pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Cuban President Raul Castro has made this sector a top priority area and has received a great deal of attention since the 1980’s. Biotechnology has the most potential in investment risk returns and is much open to new investors although the investment model developed by the Cuban financial and investment ministry has open to international pharmaceutical companies.

Cuban Technology & Software

Cuba has over 200,000 advanced computer technology programmers in every sector of technology and software development. Technology in Cuba has been compared to silicon island of the Latin world. Many high tech companies will be looking to invest in Cuba as soon as the American embargo is lifted. Presently few foreign companies have elected to invest in this sector however it is agreed that Computer & technology in Cuba will be a huge growth industry in the near future as Cuba continues to develop thousands of Computer PhD's that will be the seeds to the future advancement of this sector of the Cuban investment economy.

Cuba Investments

Related articles

• Varadero Cuba Hit by Tsunami Near Havana
• Havana Cuba Hit by Tsunami Waves During Huricane
• Changes in Cuba Create Support for Easing Embargo
• Investors Jailed in Cuba
• Cuba Breaks Record in Havana Varadero
• Invest Money in Cuba Real Estate?
• Cuba Tourism
• Cuba Plan Pga 20 Golf Courses
• Invest in Cuba Travel and Money Investments
• Cuba Arrests Cuba Golf Hotel Investor

INVESTMENT IN CUBA

Havana Hotel Investment In Varadero Cuba By American Investors

AMERICAN HOTEL INVESTMENT IN CUBA
The Cuba investment opportunities of the last sixty years of the 20th century shows that the deregulation of the Cuban economy and of American Hotel investment process was zero and did not bring about any communications between American Investors interests and those of international foreign investors. Economic policies and strategies were required yet not supported by adequate instruments to implement them that would better guide the investment flows.

Investments in main productions and basic services  such as communications, power generation, oil refining were carried out by foreign companies. Banking system were controlled by U.S. and English investment banks. The best lands were in the hands of sugar and cattle corporations from the United States, and Cuba controlled 75% of Cuban foreign trade. A few years later, the American companies displaced the companies from other countries, and 95% of the accumulated foreign investment corresponded to American interests.The majority of the Cuba economic control of society went hand in hand with political control. 1950 facilities were created with the purpose of undertaking a  resort and casino tourist development  with financing and credits that were granted with international and national financial resources to encourage foreign companies to build hotels on the best beaches of Havana, Varadero and Cuba

OLD INVESTMENT IN CUBA
In 1959 foreign investments in Cuba came to an abrupt end thanks to Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution. Foreign companies were nationalized and agreements were signed with almost all countries whose enterprises or citizens had been affected with the purpose of granting due compensation. Although the Cuban government proposed a plan to compensate the U.S. companies and citizens, Cuba found it impossible to discuss a solution with U.S. administrations who refused to negotiate and have forbidden the affected American investors and individuals to negotiate directly with Cuba. One of the most famous hotels to be confiscated was the Hotel National De Cuba.

In the 1990's Cuba changed direction again when the first joint venture was created between a Cuban enterprise and a Spanish company with the purpose of building a chain of luxury hotels on the best beaches of Cuba in the tourist resort of Varadero on the basis of Decree-Law No. 50 of 1982. Many  foreign investors suspected that the Melia hotels were owned indirectly by Fidel Castro.

The change in Cuban investments attitude started a huge growth wave of investment in resorts and hotels from 1991 to 1999, foreign investment was accelerated as the most important investment for Cuban authorities to recover from the serious impact to the Cuban economy caused by the loss of Russian investment and the economic links with other Socialist countries in the framework of the Council of Mutual Economic Aid (COMECON). The economic loss resulted in the loss of 35% of Cuba's GDP in the first three years of the nineties with strong economic and social effects. In 1998  to 2001 foreign investment expanded and more resorts  and hotel deals were signed with important partners in new tourism sectors.

Fidel Castro stepped down and Raul Castro opened the flood gates of Foreign Investments into Cuba as investors from 46 countries operate in almost 400 ventures in 32 sectors of the Cuban economy; 52 % of those investors are from European Union countries: 24% from Spain, almost 15% from Italy, 4% from France, 3.5% from the United Kingdom. Tourism, Oil and Gas, Mining,Energy and Telecoms are the main sectors of investment. Thus, foreign direct investment, focused on the search for new external markets, competitive technologies and financing  has played an important role in the country's economic recovery.

Invest In Cuban Beach Front Property Near Havana Varadero Cuba

CUBA BEST LOCATION FOR INVESTORS

Cuba is located in a region whose share of virgin investment beaches in terms of world investment is rapidly growing as top international hotel groups look at Cuba for future developments. This, together with Cuban beaches potential and North American integration process, makes hundreds of business people contact the Cuban Economic Development And Investment Office of the Cuban Embassy in Havana in search of information about investment opportunities in the Cuban beaches and resort hotel and real estate sectors.

Foreign investment is not associated to a privatization process in Cuba; it is rather focused on specific objectives that focus on Cuban development opportunities that are important to offer much higher investment returns for foreign capital involvement.

In 2003, the National Assembly of the People's Power (Cuba's Parliament) approved a number of foreign investment amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba with a view to allowing real estate ownership for private investors and joint ventures were legalized and  defined.

Related articles

• Cuban authorities arrest British man in corruption probe
• Cuba
• Cuba Hotels

CUBA'S FUNNY NEW CAREERS

Cuban Mansions for Rent

CRAZY CUBAN OCCUPATIONS

This year the Cuban communist government laid off over 500,000 of its state employees and the population of laid off Cubans are now trying to go into private Cuban businesses.
Almost 200 private sector Cuban businesses are now permitted.

CUBAN FUNNY JOBS

1. * Trained Dog Exhibitor
2. * Engraver of Numbers
3. * Fresh Fruit Peeler
4. * Operator of Children's Fun Wagon Pulled by Pony or Goat
5. * Button Coverer
6. * Spark Plug Cleaner and Tester
7. * Animal Hairdresser
8. * Plastic Covering Maker for IDs
9. * Disposable Lighter Repair and Refill
10. * Dandy (Man dressed in Colonial era garb)
11. * Habaneras (Women who pose for tourists wearing colorful dresses with flowery headdress)
12. * Wheelbarrow Operator
13. * Animal Rental
14. * Palm Tree Trimmer
15. * Producer/Seller of Rubber Accessories (relates to pressure cooker seals and blender O-rings)
16. * Pinata Maker/Seller
17. * Producer/Seller of Food and Beverages With Special Characteristics relating to Chinatown
18. * Seller of Animals for Religious Use
19. * PA System Operator
20. * The Musical Group  "Los Mambises!"

Image via Wikipedia

Fidel Promotes New Jobs For Cubans

http://Calls2Cuba.com

Related articles

• Converstaions with Cuba (bootsnall.com)
• Cruising in Cuba - Havana, Cuba (bootsnall.com)
• Castro says Cuba's mass layoffs delayed (reuters.com)
• Cuba, 10 centavos, 1999 (ryanarium.wordpress.com)
• Cuba criticizes Obama, US media (sfgate.com)

GOLF IN CUBA

Image via WikipediaCUBA GOLF


With an easing of the Castro regime's draconian policies on any activity viewed as bourgeois and an increasing thirst for tourist dollars, the Republic of Cuba is in the process of welcoming back golf.

At one time the most populous - now with 11 million residents - Caribbean island nation boasted a dozen or more golf courses. But when Fidel Castro took power in 1959, all but 27 holes were usurped for uses other than the playing of the Royal & Ancient Game.

But that may be changing, thanks to foreign investment in several golf-related developments. "Golf is becoming a reality in Cuba this year," Andrew MacDonald, chief executive of London-based Esencia Hotels and Resorts, told CNN (for the full report, visit http://www.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/golf/02/21/cuba.golf.revolution.castro/).

"The key moment was a change in Cuban property law last August to make foreign ownership far more attractive. The Cuban government has a vision of establishing 15-16 new golf courses in the next five to seven years."

According to reporter Will Tidey in the CNN report, MacDonald's firm is close to breaking ground on Carbonera Country Club, part of a $300 million project in a resort area called Varadero, which already has the 18-hole Varadero Golf Club (the other Cuban course is the rundown, nine-hole Havana Golf Club).

A Cuban investment group based in Vancouver, B.C., Leisure Canada, has three projects in the works in the Pinar del Rio province on Cuba's west coast, and a London firm called Foster and Partners told CNN it has been hired by a Spanish developer to build a 2,000-unit community with three courses in the same area.

Tourist minister Manuel Marrero confirmed that in 2010 the Council of Ministers approved 16 golf developments, saying that the sport was important to the country's plans to increase tourism.

Canadian golf architect Les Furber oversaw a $20 million expansion - financed by the Cuban government - of Varadero GC in 1998. He told Tidey that that project was made more arduous because of the American embargo which has been in place since 1962.

"Because of the U.S. embargo on products and services it was challenging to get many of the things we needed, and the economic time meant it took eight years to build the golf course due to the lack of diesel fuel, tires and batteries etc," Furber said.

Despite such difficulties, Furber is one member of the international golf community who believes Cuba has a bright future as a tourist destination, particularly for North Americans. "Cuba is 90 miles from Miami and has a great climate, coastal frontage for development and needs golf to support the tourism demands," he told Tidey.

"Cuba recognizes now that it does not have any financial support from foreign countries and needs tourism in a big way to help pay for its imports and lines of credit for most things it does not produce or manufacture," Furber added.

Though there are skeptics - Havana GC's pro Johan Vega told Tidey: "When the new ones open show them to me . . . then I will know it is true" - outsiders such as MacDonald express more confidence.

"Golf just wasn't a priority in Cuba before and now it is," MacDonald said. "We hope that in years to come emerging young players will have the chance to develop and compete on an international level. Cuba is known for its baseball players, and when you think about it the golf swing is not a million miles away from that used in baseball."

Also a factor in the spurt in Cuba's golf development is the introduction of golf as an Olympic sport for the 2016 games in Brazil. "It is important that support is given to many people in Cuba to play, practice and participate in golf," Spanish touring pro Alvaro Quiros said after a 2010 appearance at Varadero GC.

"Golf will be an Olympic event in 2016. Cuba should seriously look at and prepare for golf as they have done with other sports - baseball, boxing, track and field," added the long-hitting four-time winner on the European Tour.

While the embargo has severely limited travel by Americans to Cuba, 10 million U.S. citizens are allowed to visit the country because of their Cuban lineage.

But MacDonald sees that restriction changing, albeit gradually. "I see that coming in softly over the next few years," he told Tidey. 
 More Golf in Cuba


http://Calls2Cuba.com

Related articles

• Cuba ready for golfing revolution (cnn.com)
• A couple days in Cuba - Varadero, Cuba (travelpod.com)
• Cuba likely to get influx of American tourists (sfgate.com)
• Varadero Cuba (cuba.ca)
• Trip to town on the double decker bus - Varadero, Cuba (travelpod.com)

CUBA OPENS FOR BUSINESS AFTER 50 YEARS

Cubans Celebrate New Rules for Business in Cuba

 CUBANS OPEN BUSINESSES
CUBA- Cuban government has announced they are opening Cuba's closed communist economy to a new breed of Cuban private enterprise. Cuban entreprenours have been transforming their homes, apartmetns, cars and everything else they have into a new business opportunity
even in old run-down sections of Old Havana.All they want is to open thier own business and be their own masters.  It's not going to get rich, just to make only a little more than $12-a-month job at a state-run Cuban government institution.

Tens of thousands of Cubanos are chasing their entrepreneurial ambitions in Cuba's year of economic change, hopeful that a sweeping fiscal overhaul announced last year by President Raul Castro is for real. The Cuban leader said the country would lay off half a million state workers by March 31, while granting licenses for a broad, if slightly random, array of businesses. Cuba's new entrepreneurs face towering challenges in getting their enterprises off the ground, including high taxes, a lack of raw materials, an uncertain customer base, labyrinthine bureaucratic rules and limited access to startup capital. Yet, their success or failure will go a long way in determining the future of Cuba's revolution.

The Cuban state now employs 85% of the island's workers and controls 90 percent of the economy in one of the world's last bastions of Soviet-style communism. If the free-market experiment works, the cash-strapped government could shed millions of dollars from its payroll while boosting much-needed tax revenues and creating a new business and consumer class. It could also legalize part of a booming black market that provides everything from sausages to satellite television.

Image via WikipediaIf this Free market experiment fails, however, this suffering country will have turned hundreds of thousands of people out of their government jobs and into an uncertain future.  All of this in the same year that Raul Castro turns 80, and his older brother Fidel is widely expected to step down from his final official post as head of the Communist Party. So far over 80,000 Cubans have received new licenses, joining about 150,000 private sector workers left over from the island's last dabble with capitalism. Government economists say they hope a quarter of a million new entrepreneurs will eventually sign up.

Almost all the new businesses are small, operating out of homes or on street corners. But the stakes for Cuba couldn't be higher, with the economy weighed down by crippling disorganization, a broken infrastructure, endemic corruption and an enormous labor force that has become accustomed to getting paid very little — and doing very little in return.  Among the thousands who have taken the leap into private enterprise are Maria Regla Saldivar, a 52-year-old black belt in Taekwondo who plans to open a gymnasium in the ruins of a destroyed laundromat, and Javier Acosta, who has started an upscale restaurant catering to tourists. There is Danilo Perez, a 21-year-old accountant who has gotten a license to buy and sell bootleg DVDs in Havana's hardscrabble El Cerro neighborhood, and Anisia Cardenas, a seamstress with a license to make clothes.

Many others are giving manicures, painting homes, fixing cars and driving taxis — services on the list of 178 officially-sanctioned private activities. Some of the other opportunities are more obscure, such as fresh fruit peeling. And some are so specific they refer to just two people, like No. 159, which makes it legal to be part of the Amor Dance Duo. Even the Cuban government  warned that many of the businesses will fail within a year. And many Cubans say privately that they will wait and see if ventures such as Hidalgo's prosper before jumping into the fray themselves.

But for now, optimism and excitement are the mantra for cuba's new entrepreneurs. 
 CUBA CUBA SUPERSTORE

To CALL CUBA today

Related articles

• Cuba's economic changes create new entrepreneurs (foxnews.com)
• Cuba's economic changes create new entrepreneurs (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• 1000 Indian farmers to visit Cuba for organic farming lessons (greenantilles.com)
• Corrected: Factbox: Cubans rush at chance to open new businesses (reuters.com)
• Cuba Education Tours Applauds Obama's Changes to Island Travel Rules (prweb.com)
• As Cuba reforms, less blame for U.S. "blockade" (reuters.com)
• Inside Cuba, small businesses ramp up tourism offer (reuters.com)