By Nelson Acosta
HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuba is considering a raft of measures to attract foreign investment by creating a “simpler, more agile and more transparent” business climate, a minister said on Tuesday, as the island nation faces a severe economic crisis.
Minister of Foreign Investment Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga said at a forum outside Havana that the communist-run government would allow investors to operate and pay employees in dollars, directly hire them, and buy real estate.
Foreign businesses would be allowed to import their own fuel when necessary, and red tape and wait times would be slashed on government authorizations, the minister said.
The measures, if written into law and implemented, would mark a continued drift away from the tightly controlled investment regime styled after the Soviet Union’s command economy. Cuba says it has 376 foreign businesses operating on the island from 40 countries.
Heavy and bureaucratic regulation, including requirements to operate in the local peso currency, restrictions on repatriation of earnings and government assignment of workers, has long turned off investors.
Hours of daily blackouts, an epidemic of mosquito-borne viruses and a plunging peso – together with a record-breaking migration of working-age residents off the island – have further dampened the investment climate.
Pérez-Oliva Fraga said Cuba this year had nonetheless approved 32 new businesses worth $2.1 billion, though it was unclear how much of that capital had been invested.
“Before starting any business relationship, we must be objective in ensuring that the proposal aligns with the country’s development goals,” he said.
Cuba announced similar measures in 2014 to woo foreign businesses as relations with the United States warmed under then-President Barack Obama, prompting an era of increased investment.
The current outlook is less optimistic.
The second Trump administration has intensified sanctions, returning Cuba to a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, tightening rules on remittances and shutting off Biden-era migration programs.
Under former leader Fidel Castro, foreign investment was viewed as an unfortunate necessity. Today, it is seen as an integral part of the country’s development plans.
(Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Richard Chang)
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