SA business delegation returns from Cuba

“A group of business people who arrived in the country from Cuba have expressed their satisfaction with their mission to the Caribbean island and are optimistic of tangible results in the near future,” said department spokesperson Sidewell Medupe.

Investors in the group, organised and led by the DTI, included among others Cameron McGregor from PGBI Engineers and Constructors, which took part in the investment mission which began on October 31 while exporters exhibited their products at the annual Havana International Trade Fair.

McGregor called the mission “a great success”, particularly for an identified project between his company and the Foreign Investment Division of the Cuban sugar group AZCUBA, a 60 megawatt co-generation plant worth an estimated US$90 million.

Other proposals and agreements signed involved South Africans and Cubans working together on an engineering facility in Havana, translating South African software applications into Spanish, and bringing South African-made canopies into the Caribbean and South America regions.

Other significant deals made or signed in Cuba included the importing of yachts and the construction of golf courses.

Peter Wehrly of Matrix Yachts expressed his excitement after an international tourism company ordered two boats worth more than R28 million.

According to Wehrly, the company “planned to order two boats per year from Matrix Yachts until 2020 and three per year thereafter”.

Golf courses were also in the pipeline for the island nation, this according to Fedisang Shabalala from Shaweni Consulting Engineers.

Shabalala said he hoped “the brief interaction he had with officials from the Cuban ministry of construction” would enable his company to participate in designing and constructing the golf courses.