Havana, December 9 (RHC)-- Cuba's new Business Opportunities Portfolio has 503 foreign investment projects, 43 more than the previous one, and an estimated investment of 12,070 million dollars, according to Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment.

Speaking at the opening of the First Business Forum Cuba 2020, which is running December 8th and 9th,  he added 112 new projects and 72 that are already approved or in an advanced negotiation phase.

"These initiatives are spread all over the country, and tourism is the one with the greatest number of opportunities, with 131 projects," the Minister said

The Portfolio places the  Mariel Special Development Zone within the strategic axis of productive transformation and international insertion, with 44 proposals. In 2020 it attracted foreign direct investment estimated at 730 million dollars.

Malmierca Díaz said that "businesses of lesser scope and amounts of investment with a marked export character are projected. They will contribute to local development, while, whenever possible, technologies that encourage the use of renewable energy sources should be incorporated in the projects".

He added that the requirement of majority Cuban participation in sectors such as tourism, biotechnology, and wholesale trade is scrapped. That requirement only remains for the extraction of natural resources and public services provision, the Minister said.