The Banking System of this eastern Cuban province is ready for the eventual opening of accounts in convertible currency to new exporters or importers that may appear among the state business community, as well as the non-state sector of this territory.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The opening of the export and import of non-state management forms through specialized state entities was recently announced by the Cuban Government.

Previously, other steps had been made known to encourage direct contact by State companies with the International Market. All within the official strategy to strengthen and develop the economy and, at the same time, face the global crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since last week, the legal norms to make it possible these commercial operations were announced, within which the requirement to open an account in freely convertible currency is included in the Popular Savings, Metropolitan or Credit and Commerce banks, valid whether for state entrepreneurs or the self-employed, agricultural cooperatives or not and other forms of non-state management.

Yuslaidis Ávila Puig, an Electronic Banking specialist at the Bank of Credit and Commerce in Las Tunas, specified that these accounts will be individual and will not accrue interest. In addition, she said, they will be opened with an initial deposit of 100 US dollars or its equivalent in freely convertible foreign currencies and after they are opened they will not require a minimum balance in their operation. Neither, she added, will they allow overdrafts, nor will they receive the bonuses established for other products for making purchases through the Point of Sale (POS) terminals.

The procedures for opening such accounts will only be activated, she concluded, “once the client presents the contract signed by the entity authorized to carry out foreign trade activities, related in Resolution 315/2020 of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment.”

So far, no Company or representative of the non-state branch of the economy has completed the recently opened procedures to directly export or import. However, Salvador Sariol Vistorte, head of the Department of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment in the Government of this eastern Cuban province, commented that they have already held the first exchanges with entities and self-employed workers that could, in the near future, place their products in the foreign markets.