Qatar signs deal for new luxury hotel in Cuba

[Mika]

Qatar signs deal for new luxury hotel in Cuba
http://uk.reuters.com/article/globalNews/idUKTRE54582N20090506

HAVANA (Reuters) - Qatar and Cuba signed an agreement on Wednesday to build a $75 million luxury hotel on Cuba's Cayo Largo in the first major joint venture between the wealthy Gulf emirate and the communist island.

Construction on the 250-room project would begin next year with the aim of opening in 2012, they said.

The two state-owned partners, investment firm Qatari Diar and Cuba's Gran Caribe, said the five-star hotel could be expanded to 450 rooms. Sixty luxury villas are also planned.

Cayo Largo is an island in the Caribbean Sea off Cuba's southwestern coast.

Qatari Diar chief executive Ghanim bin Saad Al Saad said there was "great demand" for top quality hotels in Cuba, which drew 2.3 million tourists in 2008.

Since Raul Castro took over as president last year, Cubans have been permitted in hotels that were previously only for foreigners, but few can afford to stay in them because salaries average about $20 a month.

Al Saad and Gran Caribe president Luis Miguel Diaz Sanchez said the hotel was not being built with an American clientele in mind, although the U.S. government is loosening its longstanding ban on most U.S. travel to the island just 90 miles from Florida.

President Barack Obama recently lifted restrictions on Cuban American travel to Cuba and bills are pending in the U.S. Congress that would completely eliminate the ban that dates back to the Cold War.

The United States has had a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962 aimed at toppling the communist government installed by Fidel Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution.

Al Saad said Qatar, which has the third-largest natural gas reserves in the world, views Cuba as ripe with investment opportunities and is looking at other possible projects, not all in tourism.

The Qatari company, which is a unit of the Qatar Investment Authority, has more than 80 projects worldwide worth in total about $60 billion, but intends to make Cuba one of its principal areas of activity, Al Saad said.

"Cuba has strong economic bases, above all in tourism," he said. "We want to send the clear message to the world that Qatar is at Cuba's side."

Qatar and Cuba have an agreement for Cuba, which regularly sends physicians to other countries, to provide medical staff and supervisors for a Qatari hospital. Al Saad said the two countries are also discussing possible agriculture ventures.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Cool, Mika. Hope this will be a long and happy partnership. Thanks! n/t

[EFerrari]

2. (Completely OT: Link is playing "Fidel" tonight.

Fidel just made a joke about being filmed at breakfast and how he'd have to remember the French manners his teachers taught him. The other men are a little quiet and still at table. Film cuts away to Fidel and Che eating meat in the bush with their hands, smiling and surrounded by their men. lol)

[Judi Lynn]

3. Is that the documentary by Estela Bravo? Have heard it's great.

Here's her image:

http://www.cubaheadlines.com.nyud.net:8090/files/cubaheadlines.com/imagenes/estela_bravo2.jpg

http://www.estelabravo.com.nyud.net:8090/assets/78/estela_montage.jpg

[EFerrari]

4. It's the one by Saul Landau, who also gave a short talk at the end

of this program, after the film. Really interesting speaker.



Fidel (1968)
Available from Round World Productions

Saul Landau's 1968 film Fidel is also distributed by Microcline International DVD

"The great quality of this remarkable film is that it is educational in the best possible sense. It gives you a feeling for what revolution - any revolution - is actually about, what it means in all its implications and how it affects the lives of the people. The task in making this film seems in retrospect to have been enormous and it is a tribute to the makers that they produced such an exciting and illuminating work. I found it completely absorbing from the start to finish."- Ralph Gleason, Rolling Stone

[Judi Lynn]

5. Didn't know Saul Laudau had done one of these. Wonderful!

Everything he's done has always been exceptional. He has a tremendous authority on Latin America.