Cuba Promotes Special Development Zones

November 5, 2012 | | Print Print |

30th Havana Trade Fair logo.

HAVANA TIMES — Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, invited foreign capital to participate in “Special Development Zones,” during the inauguration of the Havana International Trade Fair on Sunday.

“We are making the first steps towards the creation of a Special Development Zone in Mariel, which will take advantage of the investment in port infrastructure in that city located to the west of the capital,” said the official, who added that this “represents an interesting opportunity for foreign capital.”

According to a new article from the Prensa Latina, such zones seek to increase exports and effectively replace imports, in line with the policy of the most recent congress of the Cuban Communist Party.

So far, no official spokesperson has spoken about working conditions, legal protections and the unionization of workers in these areas, which are known as “maquiladoras” in other countries.


What's your opinion?

  • Moses

    Along the border between the US and Mexico, there are a number of maquiladoras or ëconomic enterprise zones¨ . These zones allow US companiesto build factories in Mexico to hire Mexican labor under idealized conditions and import the products produced in those Mexican factories into the US as if they were made in factories located in the US, thereby avoiding import levies and quotas.This kind of economic enterprise is ¨hook, line and sinker¨-style capitalism. Have the Castros finally come to their senses? What´s next, multi-party voter registration drives and cable TV?

    • Mark G

      I think this is the Castro regime taking another page out of the Chinese Communist Party playbook. A further step toward a capitalist economy in combination with continued one party rule.

    • Griffin

      “This kind of economic enterprise is ¨hook, line and sinker¨-style capitalism. Have the Castros finally come to their senses? What´s next, multi-party voter registration drives and cable TV?”

      No fear of that. The Castro plan is to rent out their captive slave labour at bargain basement prices. This is the kind of capitalist exploitation the revolution was supposed to end. Now the regime is using it to fund their hold on power.