HAVANA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel highlighted the role of foreign investment as the "most practicable" way to promote economic development, local media reported on Thursday.
State-run television showed Diaz-Canel chairing a meeting to review government programs designed to attract foreign capital and measures to spur greater economic growth in the Caribbean nation.
The meeting gathered the heads of state agencies involved in attracting foreign investment, which was downplayed in 1990s in Cuba as a factor for growth, but later prioritized by Raul Castro as vital to the economy.
Diaz-Canel also called for diversifying exports to sustain economic growth.
According to figures released by the Minister of Foreign Investment and Trade Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba needs to attract 2.5 billion U.S. dollars a year in foreign capital to maintain a sustainable growth.
Foreign investment is seen not only as a source of capital, but also of know-how and the high technology Cuba's aging industrial infrastructure badly needs.
