According to VNA, within the framework of activities during the State visit to Cuba, on the morning of September 26 local time, General Secretary and President To Lam and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation visited the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) - Cuba's first free trade export processing zone.
First Secretary and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz Canel Bermudez joined this activity with General Secretary and President To Lam.
Introducing the two leaders of Vietnam and Cuba, General Director of ZEDM Special Zone, Ms. Ana Teresa Igarza Martinez, said that the special zone is located at Mariel port in Artemisa province with an area of about 465 square kilometers.
Established in November 2013, the ZEDM Special Economic Zone is a long-term vision project and is part of the process of updating the Cuban economic model. This is the first and only special economic zone on this island nation to date.
The initial investment for the ZEDM Special Zone was mainly from Cuba and Brazil, with an estimated $900 million, of which $640 million was a Brazilian credit. With its naturally deep waters and the ability to accommodate the largest ships visiting the Caribbean, the Mariel Container Port has an annual throughput of approximately 300,000 TEU (a unit of measurement equivalent to a 20ft container).
By 2022, the ZEDM Special Zone had granted investment licenses to 62 enterprises with a total registered capital of more than 3 billion USD, of which 56 projects with a total capital of more than 1 billion USD had come into operation, creating more than 15,000 jobs.
This strategic economic zone currently has the presence of enterprises from 21 countries, notably Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Vietnam. Vietnam is the second country in terms of the number of investment projects in the ZEDM Special Zone, including the ViMariel Industrial Park, the first and only economic zone invested by Vietnamese enterprises in the Caribbean island nation.
Appreciating the activities of Vietnamese enterprises in the ZEDM Special Zone, First Secretary and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz Canel Bermudez affirmed that this is a testament to the special traditional friendship between the two countries, as well as expectations for development in the cooperation process between businesses of the two countries.
The First Secretary and President of Cuba expressed his gratitude to the Party, State and People of Vietnam for always standing side by side with Cuba and hoped that the two sides would achieve many successes in the coming time.
The General Secretary and President affirmed the policy of the Party, State and Vietnamese investors wishing to contribute their efforts to help Cuba in the current period of national construction and development.
The encouraged investment sectors in the ZEDM Special Zone include biotechnology, pharmaceutical research and production; packaging industry; renewable energy; agriculture; food industry; general industry, information technology, communications; tourism, real estate and infrastructure investment. Products of investment projects can be supplied to the domestic market and exported to countries in the region.
Next, General Secretary and President To Lam and First Secretary and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz Canel Bermudez directly visited a number of projects in the ZEDM area, including the ViMariel industrial park.
On this occasion, the two leaders of Vietnam and Cuba witnessed the ceremony announcing the granting of investment licenses to two Vietnamese enterprises, Thai Binh Global Investment Joint Stock Company and ATG Fertilizer Company.
