China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone to expand cooperation with Cuban pharma companies

Cuba's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Belarus Juan Valdes Figueroa, as well as a delegation of the Mariel Special Development Zone led by the zone's Director General Ana Teresa Igarsa Martinez visited the industrial park.

They were told about the history of the park, its infrastructure and the operation of the One Stop Shop service center.

The parties discussed various areas of cooperation, in particular, the attraction of new resident companies and expansion of cooperation with Cuban pharmaceutical companies. They also discussed the forthcoming meeting of the joint commission on trade and economic cooperation that will be held in Havana in March.

In January 2021, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Great Stone park administration and the Mariel Special Development Zone.

The Office of the Mariel Special Development Zone is supervised by the Council of Ministers of Cuba. The zone was set up in November 2013 in a bid to update Cuba's economic model. The zone offers a number of special regimes and preferences, which makes it attractive for national and foreign investors. At present, Mariel has over 60 resident companies from 21 countries. Its priority areas of work are pharmaceutics, electronics, logistics, energy, as well as finances and banking.

The China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone is a special economic zone with a special legal regime. It is located 25km away from Minsk. The park's priority development areas include mechanical engineering, electronics and telecommunications, biotechnologies, pharmaceutics, new materials, logistics, digital commerce, big data storage and processing.