Cuba inaugurates
Mariel Special Development Zone’s first port
facilities
Ramadán Arcos
Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz and Dilma
Rousseff, President of Brazil inaugurated the first
section of a container terminal at the port of
Mariel, 45 kilometers west of Havana.
Also
in attendance were the presidents of Bolivia, Evo
Morales; Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro; Guyana, Donald
Rabindranauth Ramotar; Haiti, Michel Martelly and
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, in
addition to executives of companies involved in the
work.
The port facilities are located within a special
development zone recently established as part of the
country’s efforts to update its economic model, and
is designed to encourage foreign investment in this
deep-water port.
The Brazilian construction company Odebrecht is
responsible for the project, which has benefited
from $682 million in financing from Brazil’s
National Economic Development Bank and the Brazilian
government’s Development Bank.
