Cuba also says it is removing impediments to US businesses and other foreign investors.Listen to this articleListen to this article | 4 minsinfoBy ReutersPublished On 17 Mar 202617 Mar 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2Shareplus2googleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoCuba has extended an invitation to Cuban Americans and other exiles living abroad to invest in and own businesses on the island, saying the “doors are open” to a community that has traditionally agitated for harsh economic sanctions against the Communist government.Cuba also said on Monday that it was removing impediments to US businesses and other foreign investors, but noted that United States law still prevented trade and investment under the long-running economic embargo aimed at punishing the government in Havana.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“There are no limitations,” Cuban Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga, who also heads the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, told state television in an interview.Cuba desperately needs to revive its collapsed economy, a predicament made worse by a US-imposed oil blockade and sanctions that have led to extended blackouts and shortages of fuel, food and medicine.The policy shift signals flexibility just days after Cuba acknowledged it had begun talks with the US, and as officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump have told reporters privately that the US would be seeking an economic opening as part of any bilateral agreement.The issue of allowing emigrants to invest in island businesses is a sensitive one for Cuba, which has long viewed an often hostile segment of the exile community with suspicion. Most exiles have long been proponents of the trade embargo.Cubans living on the island have been allowed to open and operate private businesses since 2021, but nationals living off the island were excluded. Advertisement Paolo Spadoni, an economist with Augusta University and author of the 2014 book Cuba’s Socialist Economy Today, called the policy shift “pragmatic”, but said Cuba should have initiated it years ago on its own, rather than now, under “maximum pressure …
