KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Businesses in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean are being encouraged to explore opportunities for trade and investment with Cuba.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Cuba, Rogelio Sierra Diaz, said that his Government is seeking to widen cooperation with countries in the region under its foreign investment law.

“We are now promoting trade cooperation between the Caribbean Community and Cuba. This is strengthened by the approval of a new foreign investment law in Cuba that was approved a few years ago,” he said at a press briefing last Friday at the Embassy of Cuba, Kingston.

The deputy minister was on a three-day visit to Jamaica as part of a tour of several Caribbean nations, including Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, aimed at strengthening the bonds of friendship and cooperation within the region.

Diaz, who arrived in the island last Thursday, met with senior Government officials to discuss and identify areas to increase relations between the countries.

He said that the trade and foreign investment promotion policies in Cuba will encourage the participation of Caribbean nations.

“The Cuban authorities are highly interested in receiving investments from the Caribbean companies. The Caribbean business persons will have the same facilities that any other business person may receive and will be warmly welcomed,” he pointed out.

The deputy minister said that Jamaica has a lot to offer to Cuba. “Jamaica has significantly large businesses, which can become investors at some point in Cuba and from that could derive business benefits but could also provide services and products for the Cuban market,” he noted.

Meanwhile, he said that Cuba values its longstanding ties within the region and is committed to strengthening the bonds of friendship and understanding.

“We (want) to express to our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean that the Cuban foreign policy will remain the same and that within this policy the relationship between Cuba and the Caribbean hold for us a priority,” he said.

The deputy minister said that the existing bilateral relationship between Jamaica and Cuba “provides the appropriate framework” to further develop the bond between the two countries. “We believe that it is not necessary to establish new agreements but to strengthen and update the ones we already have,” he noted.

He indicated that priority will be given to cooperation in the areas of disaster management and climate change and teaching of the Spanish language.