The continuation of the Mariel project has been stopped until further notice due to the freezing of the payment in installments of the loans granted by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) – Brazil’s Promotion Bank – to the Odebrecht construction company, in charge of the works in the Cuban port. The Brazilian company will be unable to honor its commitments and ongoing businesses in more than 20 countries due to the Bank’s decision to exhaustively check its operations. The origin of the decision is the denunciation made against its president, Marcel Odebrecht, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and another nine persons for supposed corruption and money laundering crimes in the framework of the Petrobras case. BNDES has published a list of the companies that will undergo a detailed check of the projects it is financing, and it reserves the right to terminate them unilaterally if it considers there are irregularities in them. In relation to Cuba, BNDES had financed the export of some 400 Brazilian companies, led by Odebrecht, for a value equivalent to 70 percent of the total amount for carrying out the Special Development Zone project. These were made in association with...

As part of the working agenda of the delegation from the State of Louisiana in Cuba, two Memorandums of Understanding were signed between Cuban enterprises and this U.S. representation. The memorandums were signed by the Cuban Port Authority and the Ports Association of Louisiana, and by the Cuban Agriculture Business group and the Department of Agriculture and Forestry of the U.S. state. The U.S. delegation was headed by State Governor John Bel Edwards, a fervent supporter of the economic normalization between both nations. He was accompanied by academicians from universities of the state, local authorities and representatives of entities of the state’s economy, with a working program that included visits to the José Antonio Echeverría Technological University, the Agrarian University, the Mariel Special Development Zone and meetings with the Ministries of Foreign Trade, Public Health and Agriculture. Edwards has joined by the governors of New York, Andrew Cuomo; of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson; of Texas, Greg Abbott, and the visit to the Caribbean country since early this year by those from Virginia, Terry McAuliffe; and Missouri, Jeremiah Nixon, who between 2015 and this year visited the Caribbean island after the announcement of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the...

Like every year, the country's largest fairgrounds, EXPOCUBA, rents its pavilions to Cuban and foreign exhibitors looking for new business opportunities, collaboration, and investment. According to the official website of the event, the XXXII International Trade Fair of Havana FIHAV 2014 has surpassed its previous editions, with two thousand entrepreneurs from over 60 countries. At the Fair is the Chinese company Nantong Xin Li Ji, responsible for the supply of the popular SOYEA decoder boxes, which began trading in the retail network of Cuba last August as part of the process of digitization of the television signal in the country. The company president, Gu Junqiu, spoke to OnCuba about his company's products and business prospects with Cuba. In your showcases we can find a wide assortment of goods. What is Nantong Xin Li Ji? What is your area of expertise? Our company is a trading exporting miscellaneous hardware, wide range products, all for a price, food, household products, among others; and also holds the exclusive rights of representation and MIDEA and SOYEA companies in Cuba. Is it the first time participating in FIHAV? No, it is not, last year we had a stand of ten meters, with a smaller display...

How to protect the identity of a business? What are the guarantees on the exclusiveness of rights regarding its identity? How to “coin” the property of an invention, a model or a certain service? This and other similar issues on industrial property are barely known by the Cuban self-employment sector. Registered trademarks are a title that grants exclusive rights to use a sign for the identification of a product or a service in the market. Regarding the registration of brands, Cuban self-employed workers have not been left behind. According to some data provided by the No. 314 issue of the Official Bulletin by the Cuban Industrial Property Office (OCPI by its acronym in Spanish) published in last June, 53 applications for registering Brands and Commercial Names had been made till that date. That number includes applications not only by foreign and national legal entities but also by natural Cuban citizens. The self-employment sector, with 23 applications –18 from the capital and another five from the rest of the country--, represents 43% of the total, leaving behind applications submitted by the State –barely 35,8% (19)—and, finally, applications by foreigners –20,7% (11). However, there are no applications for registering Slogans, Emblems or...