The Vietnam-Cuba Investment Promotion Seminar provided information and policies as well as discussed and shared difficulties in implementing investment mechanisms for enterprises from the two countries.
Speaking at the seminar, Deputy Director of Department of Foreign Investment under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) Dang Xuan Quang said that Vietnam now has an investment project with capital of VND9.5 billion (US$425,790) in Cuba; meanwhile Cuba has invested in two projects in Vietnam so far.
The statistics showed that Vietnam and Cuba have not taken full advantage of their potentials due to limitations in information on the markets as well as investment mechanisms and policies of the two countries.
Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam Herminio Loper Diaz expressed his hope that Vietnamese enterprises would visit and invest in Cuba. He emphasised that his country is updating the socialisation-oriented economic model for the first time; therefore foreign countries will face difficulties in investment. He believed that with time-honoured relations, the two sides would overcome obstacles to gain outstanding achievements in investment co-operation.
A representative from Cuba’s Mariel Special Development Zone said that it has set up a special legal framework and provided a series of advantages for investors, aiming to attract more investment projects, particularly in the fields of advanced and clean technology.
According to the representative from the MoPI’s Economic Zone Management Department Vu Quoc Huy, the economic zones in Vietnam have attracted 329 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with a total capital of nearly US$40 billion and nearly 1,000 domestic projects worth VND784 trillion (over US$35 billion) with models of oil refinery, mechanics and heavy industry.
He also noted that investors in Vietnam have the right to invest and do business in economic and industrial zones in all allowed fields, and their projects would receive preferential policies related to land rent, corporate income and import taxes.
