Cuba's leading trade fair wraps up
Xinhua, November 5, 2016 Adjust font size:
Cuba's 34th Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV 2016) concluded on Friday, following robust participation from Chinese companies.
The five-day fair brought Cuban and international firms from 73 countries together to explore potential business opportunities, the organizers said.
Among the highlights on the last day of the event was a Cuban campaign called "I choose Cuba," which aims to promote health tourism. Health travelers to Cuba can get first-rate medical care and access a range of services, from cancer treatments to Heberprot-P applications to treat diabetic foot ulcers.
More than 60 Chinese companies took part in the trade fair, with the Chinese pavilion at ExpoCuba on the outskirts of Havana attracting thousands of companies and entrepreneurs from around the world.
Hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Beijing's pavilion underscored China's strong economic ties with Cuba, especially in providing advanced technology, world-class equipment and infrastructure.
Midea, one of China's leading home appliance manufacturers, has been operating in Cuba for 7 years.
"We have just started selling fans in the Cuban market. In 2013, we introduced products like air conditioners, refrigerators and rice cookers, which have made a positive impact on the Cuban market," Gu Junqiu, Midea's manager in Cuba, told Xinhua earlier this week.
"We will continue cooperating with Cuban companies to introduce other products to this changing market and build a post-sales system for providing spare parts and quality service," he said.
China's Geely Automotive has sold over 15,000 cars on the island since 2008, mainly for the tourism industry.
"We have been successful since the first year we entered the Cuban market. We will continue to provide our buyers in this country with high-quality cars which are already quite well known here," Du Shaokui, one of Geely's representatives in Cuba, told Xinhua.
One of the latest technological products entering the Cuban market is the high-definition (HD) TV decoder. The Chinese company Soyea has sold over 500,000 decoders in Cuba in the last two years along with over 20,000 TVs, making it one of the most popular brands on the island.
China is Cuba's second-largest trading partner following Venezuela. Numerous Chinese companies are involved in multiple areas of this nation's economy and development, particularly in technology, transportation, biotechnology, agricultural machinery, household appliances and textiles. Endi