CUBA / CHINA: New Aid Promised To Back Raul's Economic Reforms.

AFP/

   President Raul Castro and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (left) signed 10 new cooperation agreements that will give financial support for Raul's economic reforms.
   Cuba was given a new line of credit and had two others restructured.
   A donation and a loan were will also modernize the public health system.
   Vice President Xi Jinping is touted by some observers to be China's next leader.

    China will also help modernize an oil refinery in Cienfuegos, build a new liquid gas plant there and improve the port.
    After Venezuela, China is Cuba's second largest trading partner...with $1.83bn usd last year.
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  Oops...there goes Cienfuegos...a city I have visited for years to see friends and family.
  It's a boring little city...but on a big beautiful bay.
  Hello China...and...considering China's horrendous environmental record...a big HELLO to even more pollution there...where I sometimes found it hard to breathe. 
  Most vehicles there, including local buses, have zero pollution controls...and the power plant has no scrubbers and spews thick noxious black smoke.
  China is apparently doubling down on its Cuban aid....hoping, no doubt, to benefit from any new oil/gas gushers (perhaps 20 bn bbls) in the Gulf.
   China also sees Cuba as a ready market for much-needed upgrades...and manufacturing...of trains, buses and cars.

CUBA: Provincial Cities Like Cienfuegos See Small Business Boom.

REUTERS/ MARC FRANK / bothersome 2 screen read/

  Cuba's new encouragement of private enterprise is providing tourists with hundreds of new restaurants and casas throughout the island.
   In the 400,000 population southern port city of Cienfuegos, private restaurants have jumped from two to 16 and there are now more than 100 home-based 'bed and breakfast' casas.
   That is good news for tourists in the city that I called my part-time home for almost a decade.

For A Long Report On Cuba's New Small Businesses, SEE:
   Thousands of new businesses have opened recently thanks to President Raul Castro's reform efforts, with farms replanted, new restaurants opening daily and streets buzzing even more with trade.
   "In just 20 weeks Cuba increased the entrepreneurial sector by 50 percent via government-led reforms, and the people have responded. You can't scoff at that," said Cuba expert Phil Peters.
 http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2527224320110125?sp=true

CUBA: China To Oversee And Finance $6 Billion Cienfuegos Refinery Upgrade And New Nat Gas Terminal.

CALGARY HERALD/
      Details are emerging about the upgrade of the Soviet-era refinery at Cienfuegos.
     The China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) will undertake a $6-billion expansion project at the Cienfuegos refinery in 2011, financed by China's Eximbank and  backed by oil guarantees from Venezuela.
    Completion is scheduled for 2013.
    The refinery's capacity will grow to 150,000 barrels per day from 65,000.
   Also scheduled for construction are a liquefied natural gas terminal with capacity to process 2 million tons of gas annually, and a 150 megawatt electricity generation plant.

FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE PREVIOUS POST:
http://thehypervigilantobserver.blogspot.com/2010/10/cuba-cienfuegos-refinery-expansion-to.html

CUBA: Cienfuegos Refinery Expansion To Handle Supertankers.

AP/   Oops, there's goes the beautiful bahia de Cienfuegos...as Cuba plans to build three additional loading docks and a terminal large enough to accommodate modern supertankers by 2014.
     A Soviet-era refinery there on the southern coast was refurbished with Venezuelan aid and has refined 55 million barrels of oil since December 2007... and increased serious air pollution.
     The city of Cienfuegos itself has virtually become a Venezuelan outpost with many imported refinery workers living there. They even have their own barrio on the outskirts.
     Eating fish taken from the bahia has been banned for several years...ever since a huge Soviet-era storage tank rusted away...spilling thousands of tons of ARSENIC into the waters.

CUBA: Gas-Fired Power Plant To Be Built In Cienfuegos.

REUTERS/

Canadian energy firm Sherritt International will build a gas-fired power plant in Cienfuegos, 250-miles from Havana, along with Venezuela's PDVSA. The new Energas plant will have a 150-megawatt capacity and be fueled by gas from the Cienfuegos oil refinery.

Editor's Note: Look for more deterioration of picturesque Cienfuegos' now borderline air quality. Cuba talks about pollution...but does little about it.

    Photo Of Havana by Yoani Sanchez.