Cuba has invited Indian investments in oil and gas, tourism, mining and energy, including renewable energy.
The Cuban deputy minister for foreign trade, Eduardo Escandell Amador at a business meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries here on Tuesday gave a comprehensive presentation on Cuban economy and industry, listing out the sectors where India and Cuba can cooperate with each other. He said “while Cuba needs to import food and health products, transportation and energy services from India, India can import from Cuba health products and services, tobacco and rum”. He specifically spoke about the huge investment opportunity for Indian companies in the energy sector in Cuba, particularly in renewable energy, folic energy and hydro energy and also in oil and gas sector.
Amador is leading the biggest trade delegation from Cuba in recent years to India. The delegation consists of representatives from a wide cross section of industry including tourism, textiles, chemicals, agri-business, energy, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, logistics, wood and paper, automobiles and auto-components and construction sector.
Referring to the relations between India and Cuba, Amador thanked India for reopening the lines of credit as this will increase bilateral trade between the two countries.
Myra Penichet from the Cuban ministry of tourism informed about the huge opportunity that exists for Indian companies in investing in the tourism sector in her country. She said that Cuba needed investment of $ 200 million for refurbishment of existing installations, $ 170 million for investing in new hotels and tourism activities, besides requiring investments in roads construction, water supply and water recycling.
Caridad Campos from the Cuban Chambers of Commerce urged for greater business exchange between India and Cuba.
Chairing the session, the managing director of Chemon Group of Companies and Trustee IBEF, Chetan Seth said that while historically India and Cuba shared strong political relations, the trade relations between the two countries remained low. He attributed the low trade figures to high transportation cost, small volume of orders for goods, difficulties of access to foreign exchange in the hands of importing entities and payments problems.
He welcomed joint ventures with Cuban companies especially in the field of pharma and biotech and hoped that the visit of this delegation would increase interest of business on both sides and help in promoting trade and investment opportunities between India and Cuba.