Cuba wins China debt aid, new funds By Reuters

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) – China has agreed to restructure Cuban debt and supply new commerce and funding credit to the beleaguered Caribbean Island nation after a gathering in Peking between the 2 Communist nations’ leaders.

Cuba Financial system Minister Alejandro Gil stated the latter had additionally donated $100 million to assist the nation address fundamental items shortages and an power disaster worsened by Hurricane Ian, which decimated western Pinar del Rio province in late September.

Gil was talking in an interview with official media touring with President Miguel Diaz-Canel as he returned residence over the weekend from a tour of Algeria, Russia, Turkey and China.

Chinese language commerce and funding has slowed lately attributable to Cuba’s failure to fulfill restructured debt funds in response to analysts and diplomats, a state of affairs worsened by tighter U.S. sanctions, the pandemic and home financial inefficiencies.

“We’re going to discover mutually acceptable formulation for the ordering and restructuring of money owed,” Gil stated.

Analysts estimate the debt within the billions of {dollars}, though no official figures can be found.

Cuba final reported its international debt in 2019 at $19.6 billion.

China is Cuba’s most essential industrial companion after Venezuela, although commerce has declined from over $2 billion in 2017 to $1.3 billion final 12 months, in response to the Cuban authorities.

Numerous funding initiatives have additionally floor to a halt.

Gil stated China had agreed to rapidly full a floating dock, wind energy and photo voltaic power undertaking, amongst others.

President Diaz-Canel informed the official media after talks in Peking that debt was on the high of his agenda with President Xi Jinping who sympathized with the difficulties Cuba was going by means of.

The Cuban president stated his Chinese language counterpart indicated “an answer should be discovered to all the issues with Cuba, whatever the debt, and that this can’t be what limits growth.”