• Submitted by: lena campos
• Business and Economy
• 10 / 07 / 2012

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Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, arrived to this city today to preside over the 7th Meeting of the Working Group Brazil-Cuba for economic and commercial relations.

Malmierca and his delegation are scheduled to meet with Brazilian business people from Sao Paulo, considered the main financial center of this South American country.

According to the official agenda of the visit, Malmierca will meet in Brasilia, the capital, with Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel, and other high ranking government officials.

The Cuban delegation also includes deputy ministers from the fields of public health, tourism, basic industry, bank, biopharmaceutical and genetic engineering and biotechnology, as well as diplomats and representatives of Cuban firms.

This visit is part of the efforts being carried out by the two countries to promote trade and socio-economic links, in the wake of the visit paid to Havana by President Dilma Rousseff in January this year.

Brazil is the Cubaâ�Ös second trade partner in Latin America after Venezuela, and is currently involved in the modernization of the Port of Mariel, in western Cuba, as well as boosting with technology and advice a project to produce maize and soy bean.

In 2011, the Brazil-Cuba bilateral trade increased 45 percent against 2010, and at the end of the first half of this year there was an eight-percent increase compared to the same period of 2011, according to official figures.

Source: Prensa Latina