— GCSM President urges Guyana

NORMAL relations between Cuba and the U.S. will change the Caribbean, and Guyana should seek avenues and invest in Cuba’s new and emerging market,
Guyana-Cuba Solidarity Movement (GCSM) President Haleem Khan has said.

Recently, Saint Lucia’s leading manufacturing company, Baron Foods (St. Lucia) Limited has been exporting its world-class products to Cuba.

Khan said the Cuban government wants to promote small private businesses. The number of Cubans registered as self-employed has jumped from 144,000 in 2009 to 535,000 in 2016.

Underscoring that tourism on the island is booming, Khan said Cuba welcomed a record four million visitors last year, a 13 per cent increase over the previous year.

He said based on the island’s Tourism Ministry, this year, with new cruise and airline service coming on stream, it could be another record-breaker. Cuba is expecting an additional 100,000 visitors to the island in 2017.

Giving an example of the influx of visitors, Khan said from Miami International Airport alone, 588,433 passengers departed for Cuba in 2016, compared to 444,667 the previous year.

Included in the count are Cubans returning to the island after making U.S. visits.

He opined that developments in Cuba could act as a catalyst to economic activity in the Caribbean and CARICOM should be seriously courting Cuba.

The importance of an agreement for products and tariff preferences between Cuba and Caricom was discussed during the Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM in February.

“The agreement includes 349 Caribbean products with free access to the Cuban market, while CARICOM will grant preferences to 86 Cuban products,” Khan said.

He emphasised that Cuba is a country in transition.
Cognisant of the need to be fully integrated into the global financial system and to attract massive inflows of capital through investment, the Cuban government has agreed on a series of adjustments or “reforms” to provide for private local and foreign participation in the economy.

Meanwhile, Khan earlier this month attended an event held by the Cuban Medical Brigade to observed Cuba’s Labour Day observance in Guyana.

Being unable to attend the event in Cuba this year, the GCSM President said he was set to give an address before 60 other countries that were represented, but due to unforeseen circumstances he was unable to attend.

He explained that Cuba remembers the act of solidarity and courage shown by Guyana and three other independent countries in 1972.

It has consistently forged and strengthened relations with Guyana through cooperation agreements in the areas of health, education, culture, sport and agriculture, among others.

Guyana has been receiving Cuban medical personnel since 1978. The Cubans have provided healthcare and services to Guyanese at home and to those who have travelled to Cuba for specialist treatment at little or no cost.

Guyana has the largest contingent of scholarship students from CARICOM studying in Cuba.