Cuba tells exiles ‘doors are open’ to invest in businesses in the country
Cuba has extended an invitation to Cuban Americans and other exiles living abroad to invest in and own businesses on the island, saying the “doors are open” to a community that has traditionally agitated for harsh economic sanctions against the Communist government.
Cuba desperately needs to revive its collapsed economy, which has been worsened by the fuel blockade imposed by the US [File: Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo]
“There are no limitations,” Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, who also heads the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, told state television in an interview.
Cuba desperately needs to revive its collapsed economy, a predicament made worse by a US-imposed oil blockade and sanctions that have led to extended blackouts and shortages of fuel, food and medicine.
The policy shift signals flexibility just days after Cuba acknowledged it had begun talks with the US, and as officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump have told reporters privately that the US would be seeking an economic opening as part of any bilateral agreement.
The issue of allowing emigrants to invest in island businesses is a sensitive one for Cuba, which has long viewed an often hostile segment of the exile community with suspicion. Most exiles have long been proponents of the trade embargo.
Cubans living on the island have been allowed to open and operate private businesses since 2021, but nationals living off the island were excluded.
Paolo Spadoni, an economist with Augusta University and author of the 2014 book Cuba’s Socialist Economy Today, called the policy shift “pragmatic”, but said Cuba should have initiated it years ago on its own, rather than now, under “maximum pressure” from the US.
“This change could be a catalyst for deeper US-Cuba economic ties, creating significant opportunities for US companies, even though major obstacles remain,” Spadoni said. “Even so, it represents an important and potentially consequential first step.”
‘Open to investment’
Perez-Oliva Fraga, who previously revealed some details of the plan in an interview with NBC News, said that “depending on the scope of the business”, Cubans living abroad could “participate fully in the various areas of the country’s development”.
“We have reiterated on several occasions that Cuba’s doors are open to investment from the Cuban community residing abroad. And when we say that, we’re not just referring to small ventures. We’re also referring to the possibility of investing in larger projects,” Perez-Oliva Fraga said.
He said Cuba was especially interested in investment in agriculture, similar to the way Vietnamese companies have been producing rice in Cuba, albeit under conditions of usufructuary, meaning title to the land would remain in state hands.
More than 1 million Cubans have emigrated from the island since 2021, the largest exodus since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, and a source of potential investment still largely untapped.
Trump has cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells oil to Cuba, a blow to already ailing output and investment.
Trump has, in recent weeks, made a series of statements that Cuba is on the verge of collapse or that it is eager to make a deal with the US. He further escalated his rhetoric on Monday, saying he expected to have the “honour” of “taking Cuba in some form“, and that “I can do anything I want” with the neighbouring country.
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Credit : Al Jazeera
