it sounds like the perfect place to invest in a business venture.

[El Presidente]

Wish to invest in a Cuban enterprise? Roll on up but keep in mind Warren Buffets famous quote 

“When a person with money meets a person with experience, the one with experience ends up with the money and the one with money leaves with experience.”

 

 

Cuban official says ok to withhold surplus earnings of foreign company workers

Sunday, February 6th 2022 - 19:32 UTC

Full article0 comments

 

Objective hindrances create a lot of fear among potential investors, Malmierca said

Cuba's Foreign Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca has said in an interview with local current news magazine Bohemia last week that he saw a contradiction in workers of global companies earning more than those who did the same job for the local State.

“We have been very careful in trying to avoid those people who work with foreign capital investments, simply for that reason, and perhaps doing the same [work] as another [individual] in a state company, earn much more,” Malmierca explained.

He added that to prevent wages of workers at foreign companies make such a difference, the Cuban government has its own employment agencies with its own policies.

Wages of Cuban workers hired by foreign companies “is something we have tried to preserve through the employment agencies, although foreign investors do not like it. There are also other things that they do not like, and we are not going to change them,” the minister added.

Salaries earned by Cuban workers with foreign employers are way above what people receive when working for the Cuban State. But those foreign investors still consider that official income as merely a part of someone's earnings, which continues to be insufficient amid skyrocketing inflation.

Cuba's employment agency also gets to determine who can or cannot be hired by foreign companies and it prevents workers from receiving their full salary, by withholding the difference between their pay and that of someone else working where Government and employer and one and the same.

The Cuban regime carefully analyzes each investment proposal, which is only approved if it meets national interests. “This is not the case in the rest of the world, but in Cuba that is the guarantee that this foreign investment pays taxes on economic and social development plans, we do not sacrifice sovereignty, the financing has a legal source, and it is not a mortgage for the future,” the minister went on.

Malmierca also claimed foreign investments were not doing as the government would like them to, as a result of the US embargo. He also acknowledged capital transfers had become increasingly difficult. “They activated Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows citizens or companies to sue any company, Cuban or foreign, in the courts of the United States. All of these are real, objective hindrances which create a lot of fear among potential investors.”

He also admitted there were other problems such as Cuba's foreign debt. “If the interested party is guided by the criteria of international risk rating agencies, it is not an attractive country to invest in,” Malmierca conceded. He added “we have other subjective problems, related to shortcomings and internal failures,” such as “the delays in negotiation processes” as well as the “the poor preparation of projects and negotiating groups.” (Source: Cubanet)

[NSXCIGAR]

Capitalist pigs exploiting their workers with higher pay...how dare they.

we have other subjective problems

I guess it's subjective if you include infants, the mentally incapacitated, the comatose and non-human species. 

 

 

[Habana Mike]

While the exact meaning of this (grammar) may not be quite clear, I interpret it to mean if the foreign employer is paying a worker the USD equivalent of $5 and the Cuban state pays a worker in a similar situation USD equivalent of $2, the state keeps the $3 difference or did I read that wrong?

it prevents workers from receiving their full salary, by withholding the difference between their pay and that of someone else working where Government and employer and one and the same.

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Habana Mike said:

the state keeps the $3 difference or did I read that wrong?

Yes, I believe the contractor pays the state, not the Cuban employee. Cuban employees are essentially "leased" from the state. 

The issue the minister is describing is that the foreign company, in your example of, say $5, is considering the whole $5 as pay even though they know only $2 is making it to the employee. 

I'm not sure exactly what the issue is although he states the foreign companies don't like the arrangement. Perhaps they are objecting to paying the extra knowing it just goes to the state. Article isn't clear enough for me to know what the situation is.

[Ryan]

I had a call with a friend on Saturday who lives and works in Cuba. He works for a foreign company. He told me that since October, the Cuban government is withholding payments that have been sent by numerous foreign companies to their subsidiaries and staff in Cuba. The banks simply won't release the funds. Companies are beginning to escalate the issue with whatever means they have. One of the companies, for example, makes the vehicles of choice of the Cuban royal family.

 

[Huckleberry]

Nothing the communist dictartorship of Cuba does actually surprises me.  Business as usual...

[argrovesjd]

One more kick in the pants for the Cuban people.

[La_Tigre]

“You do not invest in Cuba, Cuba divests in you.”