The Cuban government expects economic growth to exceed its 1.5 percent target for 2003, helped by high nickel prices, recovering tourism and good weather, Economy Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez said on Monday. "Growth will be higher this year, thanks to higher performance in some areas, such as agriculture, and a favorable international environment," the minister said.

The Peruvian government authorized the municipality of Machu Picchu to grab 10 percent of what tourists pay for visiting the Inca village, an old claim that Mayor Oscar Valencia had voiced time and again in the past.

President Alejandro Toledo signed into law a bill that meets Mayor Valencia’s claims. Mr. Valencia had warned the whole issue could have turned out to be a bomb on the floor if his municipality wouldn’t have gotten a piece of the earnings.

The Board of Directors of Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce got an all-out facelift. Now Sara Marta Diaz will be the new president of the state-run institution.

For a number of years, Mrs. Diaz worked as juridical director and secretary-general for the Chamber of Commerce. She also served a stint as Cuba’s trade advisor to Santiago de Chile. For the first time ever in forty years and seven presidents later, a woman takes over as top chief of the island nation’s Chamber of Commerce.

Sol Meliá, Spain’s number-one hotel chain and tenth worldwide, announced it netted gross benefits for $41.74 million in the first nine months of 2003 for a 33 percent upswing compared to the same span of time the year before.

The 21st edition of the Havana International Fair –the island nation’s biggest annual tradeshow- rolled down the curtains last Sunday with as many as $160 million in contracts, the largest chunk of them inked with U.S. companies, official sources reportedly said.

The fair that got cracking last Nov. 2 had a turnout of 1,293 companies from 48 countries, including 700 foreign firms.

The Posadas Group, a Mexican hotel chain, has started out an ambitious two-year expansion plan across Latin America that entertains the possibility of opening a number of resorts in Brazil, Chile and Argentina with a $400 million budget.

The building impulse derived from this project will add some 20,000 rooms to the group’s stock of accommodations, announced Pablo Azcarraga, deputy vice president of hotel operations for Posadas.