Cuba plans big tax breaks to lure foreign investors: official media

[FrodosPet]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/26/cuba-investment-idUSL1N0MN0TJ20140326

(Reuters) - Cuba's communist government has drawn up a new foreign investment law that will cut the profits tax in half and exempt investors from paying it for eight years in an attempt to attract desperately needed capital into the economy.

The National Assembly will meet on Saturday to approve the legislation that Cuba promises will offer investment security to foreigners and help further integrate the Caribbean island in the global economy.

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The proposed law includes a clause that bans expropriations except in cases of public interest previously established by the government, in which case investors would be compensated.

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It would also guarantee the free transfer of profits or dividends outside of Cuba without paying additional tax, and allows investment in any sector of the economy except education and healthcare.

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It is almost as if Cuba and Venezuela are moving in opposite directions. Cuba is opening up more and more of the economy, letting Venezuela play the heavy. Cuba gets cheap oil and cash while Venezuela gets saddled with all the revolutionary socialism legacy costs.

"Sure Nicolás! ¡Viva la Revolución!" - Click - "Maria, can you get my broker on the line?"

(Quick Poll: What year will the first legal casino in Havana since the Batista era open?)

[FrodosPet]

1. Kick

nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. Who could have foreseen this?

I mean, apart from everybody except the dogmatic ideologues.

[FrodosPet]

3. My Havana casino prediction: 2018

If you MUST live in poverty, in decaying houses about to collapse on top of you, then yes, it would be nice to at least be in a beautiful, culturally rich place while doing so.

But when it is big news that medical doctors are getting a raise to the level of a third-world sweat shop employee - something is wrong with this picture.

Hopefully, somehow, in the long game, I hope this turns out to be a positive development for the people of Cuba. I hope that they can finally overthrow the rigid socialist fundamentalism that has held them back, and that a trip to Havana becomes a matter of remembering to bring your passport or enhanced driver's license to the airport.

What is ironic and sad is how Venezuela is getting stuck with being the new Cuba. The Castro Brothers get to export all the slogans and surplus doctors and diehards to Caracas, while getting cheap oil and foreign aid.