Construction of the complex is already well underway, with opening of Phase 1 expected for the 2013-14 winter season.

The project — an expansion of an existing, modestly-sized marina — is part of a billion-dollar push to diversify Cuba’s tourism offering and moving it upscale. Marinas aside, the plan includes construction of at least 10 golf course developments, one of them nearby, just west of Varadero.

At buildout, Marina Gaviota Varadero will be the largest in the Caribbean, with a capacity for close to 1,300 boats and berths for six megayachts, according to Frank País Oltuski, vice president of state company Grupo Gaviota S.A. Phase 1 of the expansion will accommodate 400 boats. Marina Puerto del Rey in Puerto Rico is currently the biggest in the Caribbean; the new marina will nearly triple Cuba’s transient marina slip capacity, which is currently at 789.

The project, located at the tip of the Hicacos peninsula, will also include an unspecified number of condominiums and a retail center. Spain’s Sol Meliá group plans to open a 423-room Meliá Varadero Marina hotel on the marina campus as early as this summer.

País made the announcement at the just-concluded FITCuba 2013 tourism fair in Varadero.

The marina is entirely funded with Cuban money, except for the hotel that is funded by a French company, a Cuban marina official told Cuba Cruising Net in an interview last year. Gaviota S.A. is controlled by Cuba’s armed forces.

Grupo Marlin, another state company, is planning to expand its Marina Darsena, just west of Varadero, from 104 to 500 slips in three phases. According to Cuba Cruising Net, Grupo Marlin is seeking $11 million in foreign investment for that project. Other projects include a 55-slip marina in Baracoa, at the eastern tip of the island.

The American Steamship Owners Mutual Protection and Indemnity Association, a non-profit institution created by U.S. cargo ship operators, paid the fine to settle the allegation.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a press release that the company didn’t self-disclose the cases, but added that OFAC considered the cases “non-egregious.”

Between 2004 and 2006, the American Club processed three protection and indemnity (“P&I”) insurance claims for $40,584 involving Cuba, OFAC said.

MICONS will be exhibiting at the Construmat 2013 fair May 21-24 in Barcelona, offering project management, technical assistance and contracting of skilled labor, such as engineers, technicians and specialized workers. The Cuban delegation will include executives of the Office of the Historian, which oversees the restoration of Old Havana, as well as the Company of Projects and Engineering Services, and PALCO Corporation.

The effort to open up the Spanish and European construction market follows the success Cuba’s healthcare and sports sectors have had with service exports, which became Cuba’s largest hard-currency generator a decade ago, surpassing tourism.

The ministry’s Project Division has 30 years experience with total and partial designs, particularly in restoration of historical buildings and tourism-related projects.

This is not the first time Cuba is exporting construction services. State company Quality Couriers International, which is not participating in the Barcelona fair, has provided turnkey projects in Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Libya, Angola and elsewhere.

Brazilian Tourism Minister Gastão Vieira made the announcement during the international tourism fair (FITCuba 2013) in Varadero.

The once-a-week flights will connect Havana and São Paulo.

Demand for travel between the countries is expected to rise, with the 2014 soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games coming up in the South American country. Also, Brazil is in negotiations to contract thousands of Cuban doctors, Brazilian business travel to Cuba is rising, and Cuba is trying to lure more Brazilian tourists.

Up to now, passengers flying between the two countries had to connect in Panama City or Bogotá.

Plans for condominiums at the Carbonera golf resort

CUBA STANDARD — After nearly two years of waiting, with ready-to-go blueprints and agreements with joint venture partners in the drawer, at least three golf course resort developers may soon be able to go ahead with construction projects.

The government is “taking the last steps” on long-expected laws and regulations that would allow the construction and sale of golf course residences to foreigners, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero announced during the opening of the International Tourism Fair (FIT 2013) in Varadero.

While some laws and regulations have been published over the past couple of years, significant ground rules are still unresolved.

Marrero said that the government is in talks with 10 foreign consortia. With some, “we have already signed, or we are about to sign letters of intent for possible new developments in various cities and tourism destinations of the country,” he said.

Plans for four golf resorts collectively worth more than $1 billion have been ready to go since 2011. In summer of that year, Cuban officials concluded negotiations with four foreign consortia — Britain’s Esencia Group, British Virgin Island-based Coral Capital Group, Canada’s Standing Feather International, and a Spanish investor group that plans to build a golf resort at Las Alturas in western Cuba — the Council of Ministers approved their respective projects, and the foreign companies formed joint ventures with Cuban state company Palmares S.A. Another Spanish developer, La Playa Golf & Resorts S.L., is planning to build a mega-resort on the western tip of the island, but it apparently hasn’t advanced as far as the other four groups.

Some laws relating to foreign real estate ownership have already been effective for two years.

Decree-law 273, published in the Gaceta Oficial No. 33 in 2011, modifies articles 221 and 222 of the 1987 Surface Law in Cuba’s civil code. Article 221 now stipulates that the state must issue a “surface right” title for each property subject to usufruct, including information about the property’s limits, conditions of use, and the time period, structure, nature and destination of the buildings or the specific activity planned for the property. Article 222 specifies that state-owned land can be leased for up to 99 years; stipulates that, in case the land is leased for a shorter period, the contract can be extended to up to 99 years; and states that the state can sell properties to Cuban companies planning to build tourism-related homes or apartments on the land.

Even though Cuban laws now allow foreign developers and condo buyers 99-year leasehold arrangements of the land, which banks consider equivalent to ownership, one of the consortia has said that Cuban officials agreed to let it sell residences in perpetuity.

Also, in fall 2011, the government published some regulations regarding importing and exporting of personal goods and cars by foreigners and the visa status of foreign real estate owners.

However, many other ground rules are still unclear, holding up the projects. Most of these rules are politically delicate, involving issues such as whether Cubans or Cuban Americans will be allowed to buy properties, and how — or whether — the government will avoid flipping.

In the meantime, one of the four golf projects entered limbo in fall 2011, when Cuban law enforcement arrested the principal of Coral Capital Group Ltd., which had planned to build a resort just east of Havana, and closed the company’s Havana office amid an investigation into corruption.

In his speech at FIT, Marrero said that a UK-based group formed a joint venture with Palmares, to build an 18-hole golf course and 750 apartments, 200 villas and town homes, a boutique hotel, and a retail center near Varadero. The size matches Esencia’s La Carbonera plan.

The government is planning to build “at least” 11 residential golf course resorts throughout the island, Marrero said. Last year, tourism officials said that Cuba was planning to build 13 golf courses by 2020; two years earlier, Marrero announced plans for “up to” 16 golf courses.

The tourism minister also announced that Cuba plans to add 20,000 hotel rooms over the next seven years, for a total of 85,000 units on the island. This year, four new hotels will open on Cayo Santa María, Cayo Coco, in Vadadero and Trinidad; eight more will begin expansion or construction in 2013 in the northern keys of Cuba. In Havana, the historical Capri hotel will reopen this year, and three more hotels are expected to be built in the historical center.

For the first time, the tourism ministry also highlighted the existence of privately owned rooms and restaurants. According to Marrero, 6,115 privately owned rooms are available, in addition to 950 private homes. He also mentioned 2,242 privately owned restaurants.

Marrero said state travel agencies and tour operators for the first time will offer privately owned rooms as well. Owners and employees of these businesses will also be allowed to attend tourism schools in Cuba.

Díaz-Canel

CUBA STANDARD — Expanding on Raúl Castro’s encouragement of critical coverage by the state-controlled media, the Cuban government’s new No. 2 said that blocking information is “almost impossible” and suggested open discussion of “what’s good for the Cuban Revolution, and what’s not.”

“Today, news from all sides — good or bad, manipulated and true — get to people; they know them,” said First Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel during a national higher education conference in Havana, as reported by state television. “And what’s the worst, then? Silence.”

With the proliferation of information via the Internet and social networks, “prohibiting something is an almost impossible illusion,” the former higher education minister added. “It doesn’t make sense.” He went on to encourage teachers at the event to replace “formal dialogue” with “authentic discussion” in classrooms.

Díaz-Canel, 52, was appointed first vice president of the Council of Ministers in February, coinciding with Raúl Castro’s announcement that he will step down in 2018. He is the first official born after the revolution to occupy the No. 2 spot in the hierarchy.

Díaz-Canel is a 52-year old electrical engineer from Santa Clara who taught for 30 years at the University of Villa Clara and rose through provincial Party ranks to become minister of higher education in 2009.

Munich-Santa Clara flights, serving the Cayo Santa María beach resort, will leave on Mondays, the Frankfurt-based airline said.

As it did this winter, Condor will be offering an additional Frankfurt-Varadero flight in winter 2013-14, making for three weekly flights on the route. Condor, which opened a sales office in Havana last year, also offers three weekly Frankfurt-Havana flights, two Frankfurt-Holguín flights, and one flight each from Munich and Vienna to Varadero in winter 2013-14.

Condor Flugdienst GmbH, which belongs to tour operator Thomas Cook, offers a total capacity on Cuba flights of roughly 200,000 seats in high season.

The  35,000-ton grains carrier was delivered in Shanghai in the presence of the Cuban ambassador in Beijing, Alberto Blanco. The ship was named after revolutionary heroine Lidia Doce.

Neither of the two sides has revealed the financial terms of the order by Cuba’s Empresa Importadora General del Transporte (EIGT), on behalf of Grupo Acemex, with Chinese state company China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC). The purchases are financed by China’s Eximbank. According to observers, the order for 10 35,000-ton handymax vessels is worth at least $250 million. The order came in September 2009, ending a one-year drought for the state-owned shipyard.

The addition of 10 cargo ships will boost the tonnage of Cuba’s merchant marine and allow it to trade with far-flung partners such as Iran, Ecuador or Angola. The addition of grain vessels will lower the cost of grain imports for Cuba; foreign shippers charge a premium for serving Cuba because the United States prohibits ships coming from Cuba to dock at U.S. ports.

In August 2011, the same shipyard in Shanghai delivered the first 35,000-ton ship, the Abdala.

Employees of Cuban state company Acemex are supervising the construction of the ships.

The number of visitors to the island dropped 0.5 percent during January through March, according to the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE), from 952,885 last year to 947,891.

Thanks to a small boost in March, following declines in January and February, the number of visitors from Canada inched up 0.5 percent during the first quarter. Canada has been the consistent growth engine for Cuba’s tourism industry.

Indicating that family visits and the people-to-people travel boom of U.S. tourists is petering out, the number of visitors from “other” countries — which includes the United States — was down 3.1 percent in the first quarter, from 195,129 to 188,999.

The biggest drop — -16.1 percent — came for tourists from Russia, followed by drops for visitors from Italy (-14.7%), France (-9.4%), and Spain (-9.3%). The number of visitors from Argentina and Great Britain also shrank.

The French company markets Havana Club-brand rum worldwide, through a joint venture with Cuban state company CubaRon.

Havana Club net sales rose 5 percent in the third quarter; the price/mix grew 1 percent. The rum brand showed a “good performance, improving from last financial year, enhanced by pre-buying ahead of price hikes in Germany on 1 April 2013,” Pernod Ricard said in its third-quarter earnings release. Havana Club sales rose 18 percent in the French market, which was overall 13 percent down for the liquor company during the quarter.

The rise comes after a lag last year. Due mainly to declining sales in Cuba, Spain and Italy, sales of Havana Club rum stagnated during the first half of the 2011-12 financial year that ended Dec. 31.