Spain will support small private Cuban companies interested in doing business

This content was published on May 12, 2023 – 17:19
May 12, 2023 – 17:19

Havana, May 12 (EFE). Spain announced on Friday that it will support Cuban private micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMEs) interested in doing business there and will facilitate channels for potential investors.

The economic and commercial advisor of Spain to Cuba, Manuel Casuso, said during a meeting with about 50 private businessmen in Havana that the three experimental sectors will be food, technology and cultural industries.

Cassoso said the initiative, which began in May, includes information services through the Economic and Commercial Office of Spain and the creation of a fast track for the issuance of work visas.

The aim is that “they can buy and sell in Spain and invest with Spanish companies,” Casuso told EFE at the end of the meeting.

“We expect that these measures will improve and strengthen the new business sector that starts this path,” he added, stressing the “potential” of Cuban entrepreneurs, especially in sectors such as technology.

He also referred to the traditional presence of Spanish companies in Cuba, which supports the Iberian state as the first trading partner of Europe on the island, and the third in the world, after only China and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Ambassador to Cuba, Ángel Martín, emphasized at this meeting the importance of MSMEs in the economy and expressed his “support” for the initiative.

The Cuban government allowed the creation of small and micro-enterprises in 2021 after banning them since 1968. There are currently more than 7,000 and they work in activities related to food, accommodation, beauty services and local development projects, among others.

These companies do not have access to areas considered strategic by the Cuban state such as health, communications, energy, defense and the media.

MSMEs can be governmental, private or mixed, and are recognized as an economic unit that has a legal personality with its own characteristics.

This type of economic actor coexists with the socialist state corporation – the main state corporation in the Cuban system – and non-agricultural and self-employment cooperatives. EFE

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