Since Cuba is opening up, there might be a opening to make a lot of money, considering the place was a goldmine for business before. Of course, some will say Batista's Cuba was a playground for the Mafia and evil US corporations. Nonetheless, how can a good and moral American businessman make money out of Cuba these days?
It would be risky. Who knows how long the "normalization" of relations between the U.S and Cuba will last? What of when Obama is out of office? Would the president who is elected be ready to work with the Cuban dictators and give back Guantanamo bay? I think as yet its too early to start thinking about investing in Cuba.
Very true, it's easy for them to nationalize industries in a blink of an eye. Look at Venezuela just a few years ago. Although, I imagine they are looking forward to FDI in USD as well as tourism income. So they would be smart not to tick off any investors or the US government.
I lost a few bucks when Chavez nationalized some big oil assets and their stock prices felt it. Luckily it wasn't too disastrous. I've been saying for many years that if we wanted to take out a dictator in an oi-rich country, perhaps Venezuela would have been an easier choice than Iraq.
Actually the Cuban government is pretty lenient when it comes to giving out business permits these days since Fidel left the building. Raul Castro, his brother is more friendly to foreigners and investors. The internet has also opened up in Cuba and although socialism is still rampant atleast there's not as much violence as before so rest assured peace and order can be achieved and subsequently good business if you're willing to stick it out in the long run. Best example I can give is China's open door policy--- when your economy is suffering then you really can't deny help from outside.
Cuba is just another example in the long list of experiments in communism or socialism that didn't work as planned. When will the world learn? To fix the mess, they always begin to reintroduce free markets and private enterprise.
I would wait and see how it goes over there first. I think you would want to see how things are going to play out. I think the obvious answer would be tourism. Setting up tours for American's to visit Cuba seems like it would be one way to make a buck. Maybe the Cuban people will be able to get some decent cards, and not American rust buckets from the 50's. LOL
It's gonna be pretty interesting to see what if any business deals develop between Cuba and the rest of the world. Considering most of their cars in Havana are from the 50's to 70's, I can see car manufacturers trying to jump in there. If anything though, Cuban cigars should be a good investment!
Cuban cigars are nothing special, they only became ´a thing´ once we could no longer have them... kinda a forbidden fruit type of thing. Any of the neighboring countries have been producing the same type of cigars all along. You go anywhere else in the world except the USA, and cuban cigars are nothing special. The industry I would watch is medical tourism. Cuba has well trained doctors who make about $500 per month. What could happen is similar to Costa Rica where people market to Americans to come to Cuba for elective surgery that is not covered by their current plans. Lots of dental and plastic surgery type stuff. Costa Rica has gotten really expensive for medical tourism, almost to the point where you might as well stay in the USA. Cuba will start out very very cheap, especially since airfare is minimal.
