Foreign investment reached the Cuban sugar industry in the hands of Brazilian giant Odebrecht, whose subsidiary Companhia de Obras e Infraestrutura (COI) (IOC) signed a management contract of the 5 de Septiembre sugar mill, located in Rodas, in the central province of Cienfuegos.

For 13 years, IOC will make investments to recover sugar cane production of the agro-industrial complex built in the19 80s and whose capacity was 90,000 metric tons (MT) per season, while in the latest harvest that figure dropped to less than third of it.

The contract with the Brazilian company opens to foreign capital the depressed Cuban sugar industry, whose production has dropped from about 8 million tons in 1970, up just 1.4 million tonnes in the last harvest, and its exports account for only 5% of national income in hard currency.

Hipolito Rocha, director general of the Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), recently told Reuters that his country is planning an initial investment of USD 60 million as part of the management contract that sugar mill, located approximately 226 kilometers southeast of Havana.

"Brazil has the potential to contribute much to Cuba in terms of technology, equipment, modern machinery, and the priority is there, in the fields of agriculture, food," Rocha said to the British agency.

To complement the actions towards Cuba develops to boost production this Thursday AZCUBA business group also agreed with a UK company to create a joint venture for the building of a bioelectrical plant.

This plant will generate 30 megawatts-hour from cane waste, and marabou, and is nestled in the central areas near the Ciro Redondo sugar mill, in the province of Ciego de Avila.

The Foreign Investment Law (Law 77), does not limit the participation of foreign capital in what was Cuba's first industry long time ago, but so far this had not happened, and international analysts suggest that it is a symptom of flexibility and openness to foreign investment.

Recently, at least two other Brazilian companies announced their decision to set up factories in the Special Development Zone of Mariel, where infrastructure works are carried out in collaboration with Brazil and will create the first industrial park, an instrument under the Cuban law.

Law 77 leaves open the possibility of creating these manufacturing zones by government decision, which will have a special system in customs, taxation, labor, capital investment and foreign trade, to develop productive activities with participation of foreign capital.

Several Cuban officials claimed at various events that before the end of this year, a new law will pass to replace the one in force since 1995, raising expectations among investors.

source: cubasi

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