As part of a wider package of projects requiring some US$8bn of foreign investment, Cuba is looking overseas to finance the construction of a US$400m cement works in Holguín.

Cuba needs foreign investment of US$2bn per year to achieve future economic growth of five per cent rather than the current one per cent, according to Minister of Foreign Trade, Rodrigo Malmierca. "Governments can do much to create a climate but eventually businesses the need to do business," admitted Malmierca for whom there is a change in the Cuban mentality of doing business with foreign capital, for before they were considered "complementary" to economy and are now seen as a "fundamental" agent in some sectors.