2022 can go down in the history of foreign trade and foreign investment as one of the years of greatest events after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, given the need to contribute as soon as possible and with the greatest effectiveness so that the economy recovers from the complex situation that the country is going through and progress progressively.
The decisions adopted were not isolated or independent, and when they were conceived or implemented they responded to facing challenges such as the effects of the intensified US blockade against the Caribbean nation, COVID-19, the increase in the prices of international goods and services -including those of the shipping companies - and the military conflict in Europe, in addition to the imperative to capture the necessary currency through exports.
"The impact of the pandemic hit us hard because many import and other export merchandise decreased their replenishment cycle, due to the enormous contraction experienced by international logistics," Vivian Herrera Cid, general director, told the press at the beginning of the year. of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX).
“Ports and factories were paralyzed; The decrease in operations was visible above all in Asia where we have established, precisely, many commercial relationships; and international freight has come to cost four to five times the rate they had," she said.
As part of the complex scenario, the foreign exchange restrictions in which the Cuban state commerce entities operated caused a shortage in the domestic market and this led to a greater use of consignments and, to a lesser extent, the sale of merchandise under customs warehousing. , ways to have the goods in the country.
But according to Ana Teresita González Fraga, first vice minister of MINCEX, the benefits that foreign investment in trade could bring were not taken advantage of; for example, in terms of access to supply markets, in attracting financing, equipment, administration methods, or the use of innovative techniques for logistics management.
As she stated in mid-August at an Informative Round Table, we have basically dedicated it to produce goods and services, and from now on we are proposing that foreign capital entities be created with a view to trading in the wholesale market.
In this sense, the measures approved at that time would be to promote, selectively, the creation of joint ventures under the protection of the Foreign Investment Law to carry out retail trade activities, and promote that these businesses are used, fundamentally, for the sale of raw materials, inputs, equipment and other goods that can contribute to promote the development of national production.
They would also contribute to the supply of finished goods such as food products, cleaning and economic line and installation of electricity generation systems with renewable energy sources, and to pre-finance local producers with conditions to become suppliers.
According to Betsy Díaz Velázquez, Minister of Domestic Trade, this sector also needs foreign investment, and based on the decisions adopted, even when some measures begin with sales in MLC, their effect should be to increase offers in CUP and , with this, counteract the excessive increase in prices and stabilize the offer, one of the greatest difficulties that we present today.
Since the beginning of 2022, month after month, the number of new economic actors approved by the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP) has increased – particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and non-agricultural cooperatives.
In turn, this sector, with legal personality, can become a company, carry out contractual activities and participate in foreign trade, whether in the export or import of goods or services, and this has been another of the events that marked 2022, with the facilities given to these figures.
Therefore, it was not surprising that 70 private economic actors exhibited their goods and services in one of the main commercial exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as the Havana International Fair, whose XXXVIII edition took place from 14 to 18 last November after almost three years paralyzed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Businessmen from 62 countries, plus 450 foreign companies and some 200 Cuban state entities participated in FIHAV 2022, which had among its fundamental activities the V Foreign Investment Forum, a space in which an update of the Opportunities Portfolio of Business.
Another of the most significant events of the traditional event in Expocuba were the meetings with the Cubans
residents abroad interested in investing in the country, and know that currently the Mariel Special Development Zone has 63 approved businesses, 12 with Cuban capital and 51 with foreign investment.
According to its general director, Ana Teresa Igarza, 41 of these are in operation, with an investment capital of some 6,290 million dollars, of which 1,500 already in investment, while during the two years of the pandemic the ZEDM did not stop, and for this reason it was recognized by the Organization of Free Zones of America.
FIHAV 2022 also served as the setting for the presentation of the respective one-stop windows for Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade.
The first one will facilitate the procedures between foreign capital investors interested in doing business on the island, while the second one offers users an immediate exchange with the authorities of the sector and a registry of necessary permits with a view to carrying out in Cuba the Comercial activity.
The culmination of the main events in foreign trade in 2022 was the international tour carried out from November 16 to 25 by Miguel Díaz-Canel, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic.
At the head of a delegation made up of several ministers, including Rodrigo Malmierca, head of MINCEX, the Cuban president made official visits to the Democratic and People's Republic of Algeria, the Republic of Turkey, the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, in which important agreements were signed for the benefit of the Cuban economy.