Country Presentation on

CUBA

By,
Kapish Gaba
JKPS/PGDM/10/07
Republic of Cuba : República de Cuba, Capital : Havana

Language : Spanish , Motto : Patria o Muerte i.e. “Homeland or Death”

Independence : from Spain on October 10th 1868

Government : Socialistic state of workers, organized as a united and

democratic republic Communist state

President : Raúl Castro

 GEOGRAPHY OF CUBA

• Cuba is an Island Nation in the Caribbean sea.

• It has a total land area of 110,860 km2 and 3,735 km of coastline.

• Cuba lies west of the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Gulf of Mexico,
south of Straits of Florida, northwest of the Windward Passage, and
northeast of Yucatan Channel.

• Cuba is the largest country by land area in the Caribbean.

•
• The island rises between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

• Cuba's climate is tropical and moderated by trade winds.

• The dry season lasts from November to April and the rainy season from
May to October.

• The average temperature is 21 °C (69.8 °F) in January and 27 °C (80.6 °F) in

July.

• Cuba is an archipelago of islands located in the Caribbean Sea, with the

geographic coordinates 21°3N, 80°00W.
 DEMOGRAPHICS
• The total population of Cuba is 11,242,628.

• The largest urban populations of Cubans in Cuba (2009) are to be found in

Havana( 2,141,993).

• The Chinese population in Cuba is descended mostly from indentured

laborers who arrived in the 19th century to build railroads and work in mines.

• After the Industrial Revolution, many of these laborers stayed in Cuba

because they could not afford return passage to China.
 Ancestry
• The ancestry of White Cubans (65.05%) comes primarily from Spaniards.

• During the 18th, 19th and early part of the 20th century especially, large
waves of Canary Islanders, Galicians, Asturians, and Catalans emigrated
from Spain to Cuba.

• Afro-Cubans compose 10.08% to 23.84% of the population. Their origins are

mainly Kongo, a Central African people.

• Cuba's birth rate (9.88 births per thousand population in 2006) is one of the
lowest in the Western Hemisphere.
• Its overall population has increased from around 7 million in 1961 to
over 11 million.

• The rate of increase has stopped in the last few decades, and has recently
turned to a decrease.

• Cuban government in 2006 reporting the first drop in the population

since the Mariel boatlift.

• Immigration and emigration have had noticeable effects on the demographic

profile of Cuba during the 20th century.
 Culture and Traditions
• The culture of Cuba reflects the island's influences from various different
cultures, primarily European (Spanish) and African.

• During the period of the republic (1901-1959) Cuban culture was also heavily
influenced by USA.

• Cuban culture more closely related to American than Mexican or other

neighboring Latin American nations.

• One of the most distinctive parts of Cuban culture is Cuban music and
dancing, being well-known far outside the country
• Well known Latin music styles like mambo, salsa, bolero, and son originated
in Cuba

• Cuban literature includes some of the most well-known names of the islands,
such as writer and independence hero José Martí in the late 19th century.

• The Spanish language is spoken by virtually all Cubans on the island itself
 Economy of Cuba
• The economy of Cuba is a largely state-controlled, centrally planned economy

overseen by the Cuban government.

• Cubans can not change jobs without government permission.

• Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government,

and most of the labor force is employed by the state.

• In the year 2000, public sector employment was 76% and private sector

employment was 23% compared to the 1981 ratio of 91% to 8%.

• The country has had immense industrial growth, with manufacturing's share

in the GDP rising from 23 to 36 percent.

• In 2005 Cuba had exports of $2.4 billion, ranking 114 of 226 world countries.

• Imports of $6.9 billion, ranking 87 of 226 countries.

• Cuba's major exports are sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus,
and coffee.

• Imports include food, fuel, clothing, and machinery.

• Cuba presently holds debt in an amount estimated to be $13 billion,

approximately 38% of GDP.

• Cuba's prior 35% supply of the world's export market for sugar has declined
to 10% due to a variety of factors, including a global sugar commodity price
drop that made Cuba less competitive on world markets.

• Cuba was the world's most important sugar producer and exporter.
• As a result of diversification, underinvestment, and natural disasters,
Cuba's sugar production has seen a drastic decline.

• In 2002 more than half of Cuba's sugar mills were shut down.

• Cuba holds 6.4% of the global market for nickel, which constitutes about 25%
of total Cuban exports

• Tourism was initially restricted to enclave resorts where tourists would be

segregated from Cuban society, referred to as "enclave tourism"
and "tourism apartheid

• Contacts between foreign visitors and ordinary Cubans were de facto illegal
until 1997.

• In 1996 tourism surpassed the sugar industry as the largest source of hard
currency for Cuba.

• Cuba has tripled its market share of Caribbean tourism in the last decade.
• Unemployment in Cuba is minimal.

• As a result of inefficient state-run agriculture, Cuba imports up to 80% of the

food it rations to the public.

• Cuba imports up to 80% of the food it rations to the public

• Industrial production accounted for almost 37% of the Cuban GDP, or

US $6.9 billion, and employs 24% of the population, or 2,671,440 people, 1996

• Cuba has a very poorly developed retail sector.

• In the mid 1990s tourism surpassed sugar, long the mainstay of the Cuban

economy, as the primary source of foreign exchange.

• Tourism figures prominently in the Cuban Government's plans for
development, and a top official cast it as the "heart of the economy".

• Havana devotes significant resources to building new tourist facilities and

renovating historic structures for use in the tourism sector.

• The rapid growth of tourism has had widespread social and economic
repercussions in Cuba.

• This has led to speculation of the emergence of a two-tier economy and the
fostering of a state of tourist apartheid on the island.

• This situation was exacerbated by the influx of dollars into the Cuban
economy, potentially creating a dual economy based on the dollar and peso.
GDP $111.1 Billion (2010 est.)

GDP Growth 1.4% (2010 est.)

GDP Per Capita $9,700 (2010 est.)

GDP by sector Agriculture : 4.3%

Industry : 21.6%
Services : 74%

Inflation 1.5% (2010 est.)

Population below Poverty Line 1% (2006)

Unemployment 1.7% (2010 est.)

Main Industries Sugar, petroleum, tobacco, construction, nickel, steel,

cement, agricultural machinery, pharmaceuticals
Exports 2.458 billion (2010 est.)

Export Goods sugar, medical products, nickel, tobacco, shellfish,

citrus, coffee

Main Export Canada 27.8%, China 26.7%, Spain 6.2%,

Partners Netherlands 5.6% (2010)

Imports $8.963 billion (2010 est.)

Import Goods petroleum, food, machinery and equipment, chemicals

Main Import Venezuela 29.8%, China 11.8%, Spain 10%, Canada 6.4%,
Partners US 6.3%, Brazil 4.6% (2010)
 India’s trade with Cuba to jump to $100m in next
three years , Feb 7’09
• China was the main trading partner of Cuba in Asia, accounting for 69 percent
of the total trade in the region.

• Bilateral trade with India will increase to $100 million from $40 million
last year

• The major Cuban exports to India are rum, cigar and nickel

• Pharmaceutical, textile and leather are some of the products that are
exported from India.
 Cuba invites Indian investment, May 20, 2008
• Cuba has invited Indian investments in oil and gas, tourism, mining and energy,
including renewable energy.

• Cuba needs to import food and health products, transportation and energy
services from India.

• India can import from Cuba health products and services, tobacco and rum.

• Huge investment opportunity for Indian companies in the energy sector in

Cuba, particularly in renewable energy, folic energy and hydro energy and also
in oil and gas sector.

• The low trade figures to high transportation cost, small volume of orders for
goods, difficulties of access to foreign exchange in the hands of importing
entities and payments problems
• Cooperation in cars, pharmaceuticals, tourism.

• Indian cars like the Nano and Maruti have a potential market in Cuba.

• Tata’s Nano, which has caught the imagination of car manufacturers and
buyers the world over, has huge potential in Cuba.

• One of the reasons why trade and business between India and Cuba
stagnated was because of the unavailability of a Line of Credit.

• Asian giant China has also made its presence felt in Cuba.

• With soft loans to the island, China is today the largest provider
of locomotives, light vehicles, and buses and the trade between
the two sides has reached $3 billion.