Cuba partners with Vietnam to reduce the import of detergents

Cuba approved yesterday, Tuesday, August 14, the creation of themixed company Suchel TBV S.A. with participation ofVietnamese capital. The new company is expected to produce annually50,000 tons of detergents in the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM). The purpose is to reduce Cuban imports of this product on the Island by more than 90%.

Press media in Cuba have highlighted that the start of construction of the plant will begin with an investment budget calculated in$17.61 million and that it will have modern technologies and automatic control systems.

The Cuban Mercantile CompanyIndustrias Nexus S.A. and the vietnameseThai Binh Detergent Joint-Stock Company They created the new project that will build the factory in a period of 24 months and that will also produce other related products.

The Vietnamese companyThai Binh Global Investment Trading Corporation, present in Cuba for almost 20 years, is one of the 36 clients from 16 countries with investment projects approved by the Cuban Government in the ZEDM, which is the largest project on the Island to attract foreign investors.

In 2016, that corporation received authorization as a user of the ZEDM toestablish a plant that will produce disposable diapers and sanitary pads in Cuba starting in the first half of 2019.

At the end of July of this year,Cuba and Vietnam formed the companyViMariel S.A., the first established with the modality of administrative concessionaire in the Mariel Zone, which will develop an industrial park where construction materials factories will be installed.

The ZEDM was officially presented in 2013 and is the business center and merchant port where Cuba wants to locate a large part of these investment projects. Currently it has 34 clients from 16 countries, among which Spain stands out with the largest number of companies.

According to official figures released by the Government of the Island, the Mariel Special Zone has secured the country more than 1,191 million dollars with thirty approved projects.

Cuba and Vietnam maintain a close political and economic relationship, and appears asthe island's second trading partner in Asia, only surpassed by China.

Last year, bilateral exchange reached 220 million dollars and could reach 500 million in 2020.

In June 2018, both countries signed five agreements to promote trade and investments, as well as tostrengthen cooperation in the area of tourism.