Raúl Castro’s trip: business, credit, cooperation
“Shipping and machinery construction, Russian Glonass GPS and hydrocarbon production” at the center of conversations with Russia. Photo from Russia Today.
By Elsa Claro
Havana, July 13, 2012
When President Raúl Castro said in China that relations between Havana and Beijing had reached maturity it was not considered an occasional remark. These times are not for senseless florid expressions, and the Cuban President is not prone to empty talk.
The accord reached with China includes financial, agricultural and technological collaboration. One of the leading issues is an interest free credit and an advance agreement with the Chinese Development Bank for maintaining excellence in Cuba’s sanitary field. The agreements are registered in eight documents that besides the above mentioned exchanges also included a customs memorandum that will be in force between 2013 and 2015.
It is interesting to note that President Castro met with China’s present leaders and those that will be their successors in a short time, according to the Chinese law that limits the time for holding office. The signed agreements plus personal relations make up stronger bonds.
Ties with China and their strengthening because of the commitments created during the visit of the Cuban president have all the importance that stem from the present trade between both countries, which amounts to $1,800 million dollars.
China has supplied Cuba with electric appliances that were distributed to the people to be paid in installments, part of the plan to save electric power, and on the other hand transportation equipment that has served for the improvement of land transport and for the refurbishing and modernization of the national railway. On its part, Cuba exports to its Chinese ally nickel and biotechnological products, for the most part.
The second stage of the Cuban president’s Asian tour was Vietnam, where Castro stayed for four days and was warmly received by the authorities for holding conversations on trade and investments, as well as political ties and in connection to Latin American relations and the Pacific Asian region.
Vietnam is prospecting for oil in Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of México. It is also the island’s main seller of rice, a field in which the Vietnamese also supply technical assistance for the cultivation of the grain. In a similar manner, it is collaborating with Cuba in the field of electronics.
Since both Asian nations have many investments in Cuba, including in telecommunications, no wonder the signed agreements cover so wide a spectrum of fields.
The last stopping point of the trip was Moscow. Cordiality was also present on the part of both countries. Post-Soviet disagreements are a thing of the past, and both Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin underscored the former and present special relations between Cuba and Russia. The latter is interested in increasing the number of tourists that visit Cuba, who in 2010 welcome an all-time high number of travelers to the island (74,000). According to President Putin, among specific perspectives are the contracts for shipping and machinery production, the Russian Glonass GPS and hydrocarbon production.
Gazpromneft corporation has been working in this field and some months ago the first long term contract between Russia and Cuba in the field of energy was signed with the Russian government company Zarubezhneft, an investment that amounts to $2.9 billion dollars. The Russian corporation will begin deep-sea drilling in November at blocks north of the province of Pinar del Río and on land in areas at Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, Matanzas and Villa Clara provinces.
Medvedev suggested that both countries should keep regular contacts in order to make the most of bilateral relations. Pharmaceutical products and transportation have been added to the interests mentioned above,
Several economists and some international observers insist that one of the reasons for the present trip has been to have a firsthand experience on the manner in which China’s and Vietnam’s economic models are applied with unquestionable success. Cuban authorities have said on several occasions that they closely watch those and other experiences, but they have always stressed that the project, which surely will take into account valuable experiences, will be Cuban. Yet it is clear that in order to profit from those experiences a high-level visit was not necessary. The present one was prepared in previous contacts with the leaders of those countries by Cuban Vice President Mariano Murillo, who is in charge of economic reforms in the island.
Nevertheless, the visible results of the journey suggest that this was, above all, a trip to round up business or open up others linked to the material guarantees demanded by the apertures and modifications that are taking place in Cuba, as well as looking to strengthen ties, a healthy objective in such a complex and dangerous international environment.
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