Cuba: OPEC to grant $50m in loans for water projects

Cuba Standard

CUBA STANDARD — The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) will grant close to $50 million in loans for water rehabilitation projects in Cuba over the next two years, official daily Granma reported.

The announcement came after a meeting in Havana by OFID General Director Suleiman J. Al-Herbish with First Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel. Al-Herbish also met with Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuba’s point man for strategic economic relations, as well as with the ministers of agriculture and foreign trade and investment, and the head of the National Water Resources Institute (INRH).

The new OFID loans will amount to close to $50 million and are linked to Cuba’s ongoing water infrastructure rehabilitation program, according to Granma.

“I am here not only to show that I fulfilled the commitment OFID made a decade ago with Fidel Castro, but also to ratify that we will continue to work,” Al-Herbish said, according to the newspaper.

OFID has provided $128 million in low-interest loans since 2002, for 53 water, 43 agriculture, and 32 power grid projects. Eight of those projects, including Phase 3 of the rehabilitation of Havana’s power grid, are ongoing.

Last year, OFID granted a $20 million loan for the rehabilitation of the water supply and sewage system in the city of Guantánamo, a $62 million project.

In an interview with Granma, Al Herbish-said the OFID program has helped Cuba obtain loans from Arab nations. Saudi Arabia last year provided a $30 million loan for the rehabilitation of the water network in Havana; two years ago, Kuwait granted $25 million in loans for similar projects in Santiago and Holguín.

OFID provides low-interest loans throughout the developing world, mainly aimed at energy projects.