In his welcome speech to forum participants, Boris Titov stressed that today “not only the whole world, but also Russian-Cuban relations are going through a period of transformation.”
“Since the visit to Russia of the President of Cuba (Miguel Diaz-Canel in November 2022 – note “RG”), a new stage in the development of our relations has begun. Special conditions in Cuba are granted specifically to Russian entrepreneurs. example, moving to long-term use (from 30 years) of land under lease, guaranteeing the import of special machinery and equipment without customs duties, granting enterprises with Russian capital the right to transfer without condition foreign currency earnings to Russia,” Titov said, also recalling the profound structural changes that the Cuban economy is going through. “Cuba is also changing, there are a lot of new ideas, a lot of new rules of interaction between the state and business. Cuba supports the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, both state and private industrial enterprises,” the head of the Russian-Cuban Business Council said.
“All this provides great opportunities for Russian entrepreneurs,” Titov stressed and gave examples of specific projects. “This also applies to the establishment of our trading house – Rusmarket – through which, under the new rules, we will be able to sell our Russian products on the Cuban market. We hope that we will soon see Cuban products on the market. Russian,” the business ombudsman said.
Of course, it was also about the problems that exist in the way of developing trade and economic relations. One of the most obvious is logistics.
“Cuba is thousands of kilometers from us. Now we are working here so that, as in the days of the USSR, a permanent shipping line is established to ensure the regular supply of our goods. Now we are discussing this with the Cuban shipowners,” Titov said.
Photo: Sergei Novikov / “RG”
During a break in the forum, during a conversation with a correspondent of RG, Boris Titov explained in more detail how the problems with the movement of goods between countries will be solved.
“Cuban state-owned companies own small container ships. We have started working to put these ships on a permanent shipping line between Russia and Cuba. It is necessary that this service be paid within the limits that are available to the companies. 3 times. If we reduce it by at least 2 times, then it will already give a big profit to everyone, and to Cuban shipowners, in the first place,” said the head of the Russian-Cuban Trade Council.
Boris Titov also confirmed that the parties plan to resume regular flights between Cuba and Russia as soon as possible. “Today the possibility of organizing a direct scheduled air service between our countries by one of the largest Russian airlines is seriously discussed, we hope that these plans will be implemented in the near future,” Titov said. .
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p class=””>In addition, Russia and Cuba are discussing cooperation in the financial and banking sectors. This issue takes on particular importance in the context of the most powerful Western sanctions facing our countries. According to Titov, “the Cuban side has confirmed its interest in registering branches of Russian banks in Cuba.”
“There are already three applications. We believe that we should jointly open full-fledged banks. The entrepreneurial stratum in Cuba is growing, companies need their own bank, a professional bank that can support entrepreneurial activity, finance small and medium-sized enterprises,” underlined the business ombudsman.
Photo: Sergei Novikov / “RG”
According to Titov, during the conversation with the management of the Central Bank of Cuba, assurances were also expressed about the rapid completion of the works for the large-scale launch on the Island of Freedom of the payment system bank cards MIR, which have already started. be accepted at Cuban ATMs.
“We are currently working on adapting our MIR system to the Cuban banking system so that cards can be used to pay for goods and services at terminals. This is not an easy task, but it will be solved next month “, said Titov. . In addition, there are plans to unify the Russian system of faster payments with the popular Cuban payment service using a qr code in the Transfermovil app.
The business forum opened on the eve of the 20th meeting of the Russian-Cuban Intergovernmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko will arrive in Cuba to participate in the event. Within the framework of the visit of the Vice President of the Russian Government to Cuba, the signing of bilateral agreements in the field of trade, industry, energy, agriculture, construction and education, a meeting with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is scheduled. In addition, the Russian delegation will visit the metallurgical plant “Antillana de Acero named after José Marti”, where the solemn opening of the electric steel smelting workshop will take place. The program also includes a visit to the University of Havana with a visit to the classrooms of the department of the AS Pushkin Institute.
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