Gulf state reaches out to the ‘new’ Cuba

By Robert Hamilton
For Al-Shorfa.com
2008-05-29

Ahmed Al-Mazroei, Deputy Chief Executive of Qatari Diar and Marta Lomas, Minister for International Investment in Cuba at Qatari Diar’s headquarters signing the memorandum of agreement.

With Fidel Castro’s hard-line communism soon to be part of Cuba’s past, Gulf nations are taking note of the opportunities available on the Caribbean island nation.

Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, met with acting president Raul Castro in early May to discuss plans to build hotels and a new Qatari hospital, to be staffed by Cuban doctors.

The talks came after the two countries signed important agreements on cooperation in the areas of health and tourism last April. According to a brief statement in Cuba’s government-run newspaper, Granma, Cuba and Qatar have both stepped up bilateral cooperation in strategic sectors in recent years.

According to the Foreign Ministry, under one accord a new general hospital to be entirely staffed by Cuban specialists is to open in the Qatari town of Dukhan, 80 kilometers west of the capital, Doha.

The other agreement sets out the creation of the first joint venture between Grupo Hotelero Wider Caribbean, Cuba, and Qatari Diar to build hotels on the communist-ruled Caribbean island. The first project will be a $70 million [USD] five-star resort, and is one of three projects Qatari Diar - a unit of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund - plans for the island.

“This is the first time for Qatari Diar to invest in a Caribbean country and currently there are two other projects for Cuba that are in the pipeline but are still not finalised,” a company spokesman said, declining to name an overall investment figure.

The Cayo Largo resort, located on an island 25 minutes’ flight from the Cuban mainland, will comprise of a 200-room, five-star hotel and 60 villas. The hotel’s facilities will include a spa, a fitness centre and conference centre. The company has not said when the project would be completed.

The development is in partnership with Gran Caribe, a company owned by the Cuban Ministry of Tourism.

“The government will provide the land and infrastructure, and Qatari Diar will supply the investments and develop the resort. Once completed, a hotel company will operate the resort, but no names have been decided on yet,” the spokesman added.

In April, a Qatar-based newspaper reported that Qatari Diar had become one of the largest property companies operating in Egypt, with investments exceeding $6 billion. Its other regional tourism investments include Syria, Libya, Sudan and Morocco. “We are always looking at countries that have potential for tourism growth and Cuba fits perfectly with that strategy,” the company’s spokesman said.

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.