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US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez have held talks, in the highest level meeting between the two countries in more than half a century.
The two held closed-door discussions after arriving in Panama for a summit.
Meanwhile, the US state department has reportedly recommended that Cuba be removed from its list of states said to sponsor terrorism.
Such a move could pave the way for the two countries re-opening embassies.
US President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro are also due to hold their first formal meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Panama over the coming days.
Few details have emerged from the meeting between Mr Kerry and Mr Rodriguez. The last comparable high-level meeting was in 1959, when Fidel Castro met then Vice-President Richard Nixon.
Diplomatic ties froze two years later, but last year Mr Obama announced that a “new chapter” in relations would commence.
Published by BBC
Washington (CNN)The State Department is expected to recommend that Cuba be removed from the government’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, a U.S. official told CNN on Tuesday, a notorious designation that has been a stumbling block in the establishment of embassies in both Havana and Washington.
“Our expectation” is that Cuba will be removed from the list, the official said. But the official cautioned the Obama administration has yet to make any formal announcement. While that announcement from the State Department is not expected Tuesday, it could come as early as Wednesday.
Published by CNN
Yes indeed, the Cuban family magazine is back, but unfortunately this time the entertainment industry will not be included, this time the lucky ones are the Cuban businessmen.
Seems like going back to the old days, but following the changes undergoing in Cuba, also the media has to adapt and to cope with the needs of its consumers, and that’s why the Cuban press is willing to bet on business advertisements.
According to the national newspaper Granma, as from the 1st of May the project Ofertas seeks to become the ideal advertising tool for entrepreneurs, cooperatives and state enterprise companies.
With a monthly circulation of 60,000 copies throughout the Island the magazine will have 16 pages, it also will have a classifieds section, space where individuals and companies will have the opportunity to ads sales and services.
Home holiday rental site Airbnb has added Cuba to its list of destinations.
More than 1,000 properties in the Caribbean nation are already listed, but can only be booked by users in the US.
The San Francisco-based site is restricted from showing the listings elsewhere because of a US trade embargo against the island.
Nevertheless, Airbnb said Cuba could eventually become one of its biggest markets in Latin America.
“We are actually plugging into an existing culture of micro-enterprise in Cuba,” said the firm’s regional director Kay Kuehne.
“The hosts in Cuba have been [renting out rooms to travellers] for decades.”
One expert, however, said the site faced major challenges
Published by BBC
(Prensa Latina) Cuba has received more than 300 formal requests to settle in the Special Development Zone Mariel (ZEDM), it was reported today in an online business forum prior to the Summit of the Americas, to be held in Panama.
The online-real-time exchange with managers and Cuban officials focused on the topics to be addressed at the II Business Summit of the Americas, including food security and agribusiness, integration and financial inclusion, economic empowerment of women, energy, infrastructure, logistics and connectivity, innovation and information technology.
To a number of questions and comments on ZEDM, General Director Ana Teresa Igarza replied that requests received are in the process of preparing their respective documentations.
Projects approved are in the process of commercial register and will be announced once they are established in the zone, destined to become Cuba’s commercial port to the world; inasmuch as ZEDM is the result of the island’s effort to boost foreign investment and update its economic model.
Igarza added that the area provides spaces for various industry branches and includes the provision of modern services.
The new container terminal at Mariel is managed by the world’s leading company PSA, from Singapore, and has a development strategy including its extension to a maximum of two thousand 400 meters of quay, an annual operational capacity of three million containers, and its specialization as trans shipment port.
Published by Prensa Latina
Cuba and Trinidad-Tobago signed a bilateral collaboration accord in the area of tourism to promote and increase the flow of travelers and to boost the Caribbean multi-destination.
The agreement includes the training of personnel, investment promotion, the exchange of expertise and scientific experience, environmental evaluations and the development of new tourist products.
The Trinidadian delegation held talks with the Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca and with government vice-president Ricardo Cabrisas.