During the visit of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to Cuba, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi and Cuban First Deputy Minister of Construction Angel Vilaragot Montes de Oca visited and worked at the Sanvig joint venture in Santa Cruz.
Sanvig Joint Venture Company was established and put into production in November 2019 in the field of building materials, contributing capital to Vietnam is Glass and Construction Ceramic Corporation - Viglacera. Up to now, the joint venture has provided the Cuban market with 4,574,000m2 of Ceramic tiles; nearly 210,000 sanitary ware products, ensuring the working life for 330 employees. In the first quarter of 2023, the joint venture successfully transformed the production line of 400x400mm large slabs – this is an important milestone that opens up opportunities to export foreign currency-earning products to Cuba. In March of this year, Cuba successfully exported 1,500 m2 of 300x300mm bricks to the Dominican Republic.
Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi and Cuban First Deputy Minister Angel Vilaragot Montes de Oca went on a field trip to the Sanvig joint venture factory.
At the meeting, Mr. Pham Ngoc San – Chairman of the Company reported in detail on the company’s production and business situation, stated the difficulties the enterprise was facing, and proposed solutions that need to be facilitated by the Cuban Ministry of Construction and relevant Cuban agencies. Specifically in terms of raw materials, fuel and electricity for production; opening up financial flows between business partners and joint ventures, especially the joint venture company opening financial flows needing the support of the Central Bank of Cuba. It is necessary to have a special mechanism for the joint venture company to be able to operate continuously and efficiently.
Speaking at the meeting, Cuban First Deputy Minister of Construction Angel Vilaragot Montes de Oca affirmed that Cuba is facing difficulties due to embargo, which greatly affects economic development. Sanvig Company with the presence and joint venture with Vietnam will help Cuba develop more economically. Currently, this factory produces a lot of products to help people and society, and also exports to bring foreign currency for the government. Sanvig Company is also the mainstay of the Construction industry, greatly supporting the construction sector of Cuba. The Cuban side will create the best conditions for the plant to develop. First Deputy Minister Angel Vilaragot Montes de Oca also wished that in addition to this project, there would be many other projects that the Ministry of Construction and Vietnamese construction enterprises would invest in in Cuba.
Together with the Cuban First Deputy Minister of Construction on a field trip to the factory, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi was very excited about the results achieved by the joint venture in recent times. Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi affirmed: “This is the result of the very special friendship cooperation relationship between Vietnam and Cuba and also gratefully thanks the Cuban Minister of Construction and leaders of local authorities and partners for creating favorable conditions for the joint venture to operate effectively in recent years.
Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi said that he would discuss with Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment and Cuban Minister of Construction to remove difficulties and obstacles, find more development directions for the joint venture. He also suggested that the joint venture continue to maintain production, ensure the current capacity of 2.1 million m2 of brick production, ensure the factory operation, product safety and quality, pay more attention to take care of the lives of workers.