Trinidad & Tobago’s airline to start flying to Havana

Trinidad & Tobago and Cuba are furthering official arrangements to have a plane from the British West Indian Co. fly to Havana twice a week, a source close to the negotiations informed.

According to Options, a weekly publication, the steps prior to the agreement were made public in a meeting between Kenneth Valley, Trinidad & Tobago’s minister of commerce and industry, and Cuban foreign trade minister Raul de la Nuez.

Both parties agreed that the new air connection from Port of Spain, the island’s capital, to Havana is highly important since one of the handicaps Caribbean nations must cope with to develop tourism and trade on a regional basis is the lack of transportation.

Mr. de la Nuez said a group of Cuban entrepreneurs will soon leave for Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana with a view to get in touch with their counterparts there.

At the same time, the Cuban Minister indicated trade between Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean is somewhere around $120 million every year and chances of taking that figure up a notch or two are looking pretty good.

For his part, Mr. Valley trumpeted the granting of a credit line in order to foster imports from Trinidad & Tobago to Cuba.

During his stay on the island, Mr. Valley held talks with officials from the ministries of tourism, education and foreign investment, as well as with staff members of the Pan American Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce.