 And we're here in Cuba. Hello. Welcome to the Cuban Pavilion. We expect that all visitors might get into a magical adventure in this part of the Caribbean. This is part of Havana, every creation of the city of Havana with the architecture which is typical of the colorful life and the architecture while we show culture, life standards and everything about our lives. What do we see here with this guy? Here we can see one of the persons who is in charge of rolling cigars as we made the best cigars in the world. How do you make the best cigars? How is that possible? Those best cigars are due to the quality of water, the quality of the soil and the weather, the kind of climate we have and also the 4th century culture of making cigars. How long have Cuba been making cigars? 4 centuries. We see the storage of the tobacco leaves since asian times. We have an expression here of the best maritime beds in the Caribbean, well preserved. It's very typical that tourists go to these coral reef areas which are perfectly preserved. What do you do to preserve them? We are in sustainability area precisely because Cuba develops tourism, meeting the 5 main pillars of international tourism. There's stuff to do with the art and the dance. Cuba is a country which is internationally recognized for the rhythm, the music, the arts and that's what we wanted to show here in Dubai. It's also centuries of tradition to have a party in Cuba, right? We in Cuba are also well known by international musicians as well as music, many different genders like Danzón, Chacha, Salsa, Mambo, those are the kind of music which are mostly placed in Cuba. Would you say it's the best music in the world? It's the same music from the world but it's totally, completely Cuban. Alright, let's walk around your booth. What's next you want to show? Is a busy world expo for you? Yes it is concerning everything, business, promotion. You do business? We also would like to change that Cuba deals not only with music and cigars and dancing. These are the doors of transformation and evolution in Cuba. Here we show things about tourism, sustainable tourism in Cuba. We show how science is creating the future, it's a elaborating future. And Cuban has some power in developing biotechnology in the world. For instance we have unique vaccines against lung cancer to treat lung cancer as well as some other products. It works and do people come from around the world to get treatment? Yes, there are many services. Both come to Cuba and we also offer those medicine services overseas. For instance in Abu Dhabi we have a brigade of Cuban doctors, Cuban medicine specialists. What do they do there? They give medical services in hospitals. I saw that during the bad time happening recently the pandemic, Cuban doctors came and helped. In Italy, right? Yes of course, Cuba sends medical brigades to 59 countries. How big is Cuba? 110,000 square meters and 11 million inhabitants. And today we have 9 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants. It's the highest rate in Latin America of doctors per inhabitant. It's more than in Europe and USA, right? Yes, it's the reason of pride for us that the strategy of Cuba against COVID-19 was designed to consider vaccines that have been researched and created and produced by Cuban doctors. 80% of the Cuban population today has been already vaccinated with Cuban vaccines against COVID-19. What are the Cuban vaccines? The Cuban vaccines are ABDALA, Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus. Those are the names of 3 vaccines we are using. And they are safe. 90% efficiency. We vaccinated the whole population in children, infant population from 2 to the age of 18. And we did all the testing. And it's inactive COVID, it's not mRNA technology or something like that. So what people who are suffering from arthritis or cancer or some other problems, it would be a good idea to come to Cuba for a few months and get rehabilitated. Cuba has a special service to deal with foreigners, patients, almost in all spheres of medicine. We have vaccines to treat prostate cancer. We have vaccines to treat lung cancer, neck cancer. And we have products which are unique in Cuba to heal the diabetic feet and to avoid the amputation of the limbs. So people come from Europe, USA, they come to Cuba and they spend 2-3 months and they become better. Unfortunately, American citizens are not allowed by their administration to travel to Cuba. Officially. It's one of a few countries which are not in the least of countries to be visited by American citizens. But this will change soon, no? They cannot smoke Cuban cigars. And they cannot dance on the Cuban music. But this will change soon, no? Maybe, hopefully. It's important to have peace and be friendly all the nations, right? Cuba is 9 miles from the States, 150 kilometers. We are a peaceful country with great security for citizens. We were declared or stated by Latin American countries a peace of zone, a zone of peace. And we Cubans would like to have peace and harmony and to have a prosperous and sustainable system. What is European countries doing with Cuba to bring the economy in the right direction and work together? Cuba has relations with many countries. For instance, the main commercial partners are Russia, China, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, Mexico. But we have good relations with most European countries, members of European Union. Trade relations. And there are many European companies having investments in Cuba. Indeed, Spain is the main country having this trade with some branches in Cuba. But I guess a lot more can be done in the future for open trade. Trade is open. We have an open economy in Cuba because we depend mostly on imports. But what are you doing to more exports? We export seafood. I mean lobster, shrimps. We export as well biotinological products and biopharmaceutical products. We have nickel preserved reservoirs and we also export rum, cigars. And one of the main products we export is professional services. For instance, we export medical services, professional services and an advisement in medication, medicine, as well as in some other sectors. Where Cuba has created research, scientists, specialists. What's happening in terms of the internet connection? Is it very fast? Cuba already has 5G. We have good cable connection to the island, right? Unfortunately, we have not been able to connect with a cable that goes under Cuba, which is the cable established by the United States. Then this is due to the blockade. How soon can you... Okay, that's another political question, but it would be good to have a cable with a super fast internet for every Cuban right? Is there a lot of startups, tech? Would you show something, is it maybe around here? There's an equity tourism education. Is there a place for people to come and do their startups? Software... Indeed, we have companies in Cuba doing this kind of work, startups. And the tourism industry is growing. For the pandemic times, we were receiving in Cuba about 5 million tourists per year. But now there is a depression on the amount of tourists we have. And since November 15, we reopened our borders. And at this point, we have 50 daily flights to Havana, taking tourists from many different countries. From where? The main center of tourists is Canada. Canada, direct flights. United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, direct flights. And they come from Mexico. And Panama is a flight. It can be more low-cost airlines to come, some low affordable tickets to fly over. We have Iberia, we have some Mexican companies already traveling, as well as Canada. We have charter companies and commercial companies from Germany, from the UK, from Italy. And I see that many people rent out rooms on an Airbnb. And as many options and as the price is very good. We have five-star hotels, four-star, three-star hotels. And we also have the private houses, which are also available for tourists. Tourists are going to give a couple of the chance to be hosted in hotels, in state-owned hotels or in private houses. And I see many times when I see the videos that these old American cars driving around the streets, do you also get a lot of new cars from Europe? Of course we have new cars, but these old cars are used as pieces of jewelry, which are usually used by tourists. And every country tourist can just come, visa-free, get in, easy, no problem. Same thing happens in Cuba. Tourists can buy a car, tourist car, which is a visa indeed, and it's easy to get in Cuba. From every country. From every country. Including American citizens are allowed to enter. If they can find a way to come, they can come. And what is it with education? Is it people from around the world? In 1961, we were the first country in Latin America to be free of illiteracy. 99% of the population in Cuba today know how to read and write. In high school, I mean, 12th grade of education is the average education level. We have universities in the 15 countries of the... provinces of the country, and we have a free universal system of education from preschool to post-graduate courses. So education is free, health is free. The Airbnb is not free, the house. Most Cubans are house owners, home owners, you know. Few Cubans are not having rented house. But it's expensive to own a house, no? Everybody can afford one. Those who have the house, are not supposed to pay any taxes for them. They'll just own the house. And food, everybody gets healthy food. It's not secret at all that we in Cuba are having hard times at this moment. We don't want to talk about political issues, but blockade against Cuba is an obstacle for the development of Cuba. We have significant financial problems with dollars for imports. Some companies are having business and our investment with Cuba are financially punished. We can tell you, for instance, in Dubai, we have many difficulties with financial issues because of the blockade imposed by the United States. I imagine the Emirates and Qatar, they want to do business with Cuba, right? And many other countries want to do business with Cuba, but because they're very good friends with the USA, they have a problem to do what they want, right? Some companies are threatened for having business with Cuba, due to the blockade. Banks, institutions are denied the possibility of receiving payments from Cuba because they're afraid of refined or punished. But the blockade, it's a real matter. It was, sorry to talk about politics, but it was so long with Obama and at the end, just at the end, something seemed to happen. I understand the last few months in the last few days, and you come and shake hands, and you wait all these years, and why did the next guy cancel this? As you said, during Obama's times, there was an enhancement of relations between Cuba and the United States. Diplomatic relations were re-established. They have been interrupted 60 years ago. President Obama visited Cuba. Embassies were open in both countries. But President Donald Trump implemented 243 different measures and sanctions against Cuba. And today, with John Biden, government, they still have the 243 sanctions. They didn't go back to Obama. Not at all. President Biden promised in his campaign to be flexible with some of these sanctions, like travels to Cuba, flights to Cuba. Remetances of relatives from the states to Cuba. Opening of embassies. But nothing of that has happened so far. Sorry to speak about politics, but I always think if they want to influence your politics, the best way to do is to open the travel. It's not too close down. Because then they would come and they can try to convince you but if they stay away, how they can convince you? It's just an opinion. It's an opinion. All right, so but looking forward to what's happened after the expo, hopefully everything will get better and positive in the future. We are optimistic all by nature. We are making important steps. There is a development strategy for the economic up to the year 2030 which has been retained due to the pandemic. But the pandemic situation is under control in Cuba and this strategy has been to create our own products, our own resources used. So we hope that coming months show the impact of the economic strategies projects. We have passed a law for the creation of private companies and today we have more than three hundred new companies, private companies to start operating. And these new private companies shall move the Cuban economy. Because I can imagine that an island needs to work with all the other countries. It's difficult to do everything on your island. You have to collaborate with everybody. You're right. All right. Thank you very much.