Odebrecht carry out Havana’s airport expansion
HAVANA, 9 Mar. (EFE) Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht will carry out the $207 million expansion of the international terminal at Havana’s Jose Marti Airport, Cuba’s official media said Monday.
Work will begin this month at Terminal 3 to “make more efficient the services provided to roughly 2,000 passengers going through the facility at rush hour,” Odebrecht executive Fabio Goebel said in comments published by online magazine Cubacontemporanea.
The airport renovation is Odebrecht’s third major project in Cuba. In January 2014, the firm began work on a new mega-port at Mariel, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of Havana, representing a total projected investment of $957 million, half of it financed by Brazil’s National Development Bank.
An Odebrecht subsidiary signed in 2013 a 13-year contract with Cuban state sugar corporation Azcuba to manage and modernize a sugar mill in Cienfuegos province. Odebrecht trained more than 3,000 Cubans for jobs on the Mariel initiative and plans to follow a similar approach with the airport project, generating employment on the island.
More than 3 million foreign tourists visited Cuba last year, a new record, and some analysts say the number could double if the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana ends restrictions on U.S. residents’ travel to the island.
Cuba needs around $2.5 billion in foreign investment to complete reforms aimed at “updating” its socialist economic model.
L’aéroport de la Havane bientôt agrandi
Le géant brésilien du bâtiment Odebrecht va entamer ce mois de mars les travaux d’agrandissement du terminal international de l’aéroport de La Havane, rapporte la presse cubaine.
“Nous allons débuter ce mois-ci les travaux de réparation et de modernisation du Terminal (n°3), pour améliorer les services fournis aux près de 2000 voyageurs présents chaque jour aux heures de pointe”, a annoncé Fabio Goebel, chargé du développement d’Odebrecht à Cuba, à la revue en ligne Cuba Contemporanea.
Odebrecht a déjà dirigé la construction du méga-port de Mariel (45 km à l’ouest de La Havane), pour un investissement de 800 millions de dollars principalement supporté par le gouvernement brésilien.
L’entreprise est aussi actuellement engagée dans les travaux de construction de la zone de développement du port, qui comprend une zone franche.