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WORLD NEWSWednesday 4 November
US companies in Cuba for celebration of commerce Venezuela leader
M. WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press
HAVANA (AP) — A week-
long celebration of com-
merce is underway in one
of the world’s last com-
munist countries, with hun-
dreds of international cor-
porations including some
big U.S. firms flocking to
Havana to try to do busi-
ness with a government
basking in expectations of
growth set off by detente
with Washington.
The Havana International
Fair has long been among
the stranger events in the
world of international busi-
ness: a trade fair in a cash-
starved country that’s em-
bargoed by the world’s
most powerful nation and
views markets with deep
suspicion. For years, Cuban
bureaucrats, foreign dip-
lomats and businessmen
gamely trooped through
the halls of the Pabexpo
fairgrounds on the outskirts
of Havana, eyeing stalls
stocked with products like
Spanish canned vegeta-
bles and dutifully attending
government presentations
on opportunities for invest-
ments in state-controlled
pig farms and nickel mines.
This year’s fair has some-
thing new: the electric buzz
of business hustling to capi-
talize on what many feel
will be a boom set off by
the start of the normaliza-
tion of relations with the U.S.
“This entire process has
aroused international inter-
est,” Commerce Minister
Rodrigo Malmierca said
Haiti needs more time for preliminary vote results aims to foster trade be-
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti
(AP) — Haitians will have
to wait longer for official
preliminary results from last
month’s first-round presi-
dential election.
The leader of Haiti’s Pro-
visional Electoral Council
said last week that the top
Monday as he announced
that Cuba saw 4.7 percent
growth in the first half of the “I have a lot of faith that
year, and is expected to
close 2015 with 4 percent,
up from an anemic 1.3 per-
cent in 2014. “We are con-
vinced that it is possible to
Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure arrives at the 33rd Havana Interna-
tional Fair (FIHAV) in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Nov. 2, 2015.
have a normal and civilized
relationship with the United
States.”
The loosening of U.S. rules
on visiting Cuba, and a
rush to see the country that
many believe is about to
change, has tourist visits up
by 18 percent, or 400,000
more people, this year.
That’s pumped hundreds
of millions of dollars into
the centrally controlled
economy. The expectation
that the U.S. will steadily
continue to loosen restric-
tions on trade with Cuba
has set off a fever among
international investors, who
are furiously trying to get
footholds in a market that
two finishers in the Oct. 25
vote would be announced
Tuesday.
The council now says it will
issue preliminary results on
Thursday.
It says the additional time is
needed to reconcile com-
plaints of fraud submitted
they believe will soar over
the long term.
our government will per-
mit the free flow of tourists
to Cuba, and the day that
happens this island will be-
come the place that all
(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) Most said they saw few
tourists want to come see,”
said Sprint CEO Marcelo
Claure, who announced
on Monday that his com-
pany had struck a deal di-
rectly with the Cuban state
telecommunications com-
pany ETECSA to provide
roaming services to Sprint
customers in Cuba. “I want
all my Sprint customers,
my 60 million customers,
to come to Cuba and feel
as if they were in any other
country in the world.”
This year’s fair, known by the
Spanish acronym FIHAV, is
the biggest in 15 years, with
300 Cuban companies and
600 from 70 other coun-
tries, including 20 from the
by various quarters in re-
cent days.
Out of a total of 162 com-
plaints, 43 have been eval-
uated as admissible and
forwarded to a tabulation
center.
Haitians had to grapple
with an unusually long bal-
United States. Pepsi, Napa
Auto Parts, Gallo Wines and
a U.S. tractor company that
just got Cuban permission
to set up a plant at the new
Mariel port and free trade
zone have stands among
the typical food exporters,
among the few American
businesses allowed to sell
their goods to Cuban un-
der the U.S. embargo.
short-term opportunities for
business in Cuba due most-
ly to the thicket of prohibi-
tions in the U.S. embargo.
“This is a long-term play,”
said Phil Klein, vice presi-
dent for the Americas
for Gallo, which set up a
stand featuring dozens of
brands of wine and spirits,
an open bar and models in
high heels and short skirts.
“We’re here to learn about
the country now that things
are opening up.”
The Mariel port stand was
packed with foreign execu-
tives, as were the stands of
companies from long-time
Cuban trading partners
such as Spain. That country
had four pavilions filled with
dozens of firms doing hun-
dreds of millions of dollars in our region,” said Maduro,
annual business with Cuba
that they expect to grow in
the wake of detente with
the U.S.
“We see it as an opportu-
nity,” Javier Alvarez, exec-
utive of Plasvisa, a Spanish
firm that sells 4 million euros tops for the island’s gov-
a year worth of plastic lam-
inates and films and doors
in Cuba, mostly to high-end
hotel projects. q
lot featuring 54 presidential
candidates when they cast
their votes.
International observers said
balloting went relatively
smoothly. But some po-
litical factions claim votes
have gone missing, among
other fraud accusations. q
pledges Petrocaribe
plan for Caribbean
E. G. PRESCOTT
Associated Press
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent
(AP) — Venezuelan Presi-
dent Nicolas Maduro on
Monday pledged more
resources for the eastern
Caribbean under the Pet-
rocaribe program during a
one-day visit to the nearby
island of St. Vincent.
Maduro said he was seek-
ing to find a regional hub
that would serve as the
center for the construction
of 50 homes financed by a
Venezuelan program that
provides fuel at generous
financial terms to Caribbe-
an and Central American
countries.
Maduro said the pilot proj-
ect could serve as a model
for future investments in
St. Vincent. He did not say
how much construction of
the homes would cost or
provide any other details
as he praised the program.
“There should be no doubt
in our minds that PetroCa-
ribe today is the backbone
of the energy, social and
economic development of
whose country is struggling
with a tanking economy
and has the world’s high-
est inflation.
Maduro announced dur-
ing his visit that Venezuela
would provide 7,500 lap-
ernment, adding that the
two nations would seek to
improve trade relations.
Maduro said he also plans
to launch an initiative that
tween Venezuela and the
eastern Caribbean to fa-
cilitate customs, transpor-
tation and operations for
Petrocaribe projects.
Maduro recently visited An-
tigua, Suriname, St. Lucia
and Grenada to talk about
economic and social de-
velopment initiatives.q