Ecuador-Cuba Business Forum seeks to expand relations

Authorities and businessmen from Cuba and Ecuador today highlighted the results of the first Business Forum between the two nations, which took place from Wednesday to Friday in the Ecuadorian province of Guayas.

For Miguel Benítez, president of the Ecuador-Cuba Chamber of Commerce, the meeting is an unprecedented event which has placed both public and private companies in the same space, in pursuit of the development of projects and the search for joint business opportunities.

In an interview with the Cuban press, Benítez explained that the objective of the Forum is to give Ecuadorian businessmen a vision of the potential of commercial relations with the Caribbean island.

According to Benítez, the medium-term expectation is to significantly increase the trade balance, both in the marketing of goods and services.

Regarding the progress achieved in recent days, he mentioned the conversations in areas such as tourism and health combining the Cuban methodological experience with the customer service processes in Ecuador.

In his opinion, the main obstacle is the lack of awareness of the potential for exchange, and of existing information in Ecuador about the transformation processes of the Cuban economic model.

In that sense, the president of the Ecuador-Cuba Chamber of Commerce said that the Chamber is linked to the new forms of non-state management existing in the Caribbean nation to promote its rapprochement with Ecuadorian companies.

He further explained that the chamber is a representative of civil society, in accordance with its constitutionally granted right to form associations. However, it is still in the process of obtaining legal status for commercial purposes. This makes the chamber a valuable partner for Ecuadorian companies looking to expand into the Cuban market, as well as for Cuban companies seeking to establish business relationships with Ecuador.

In this regard, Benítez pointed out that the Chamber assists in legal security studies, recruitment, identification of opportunities, development of new business models, among other options.