A new business network to aid Irish businesses that want to invest in Cuba or create new markets there has been established with the backing of the Cuban Embassy in Ireland. The Irish Cuba Business Network (ICBN) was launched in Dublin late last month to promote trade and investment with the Caribbean island and to assist Irish companies interested in doing business there.

Along with a market of 11 million people and projected tourism growth to 4 million visitors by 2012 — are just some of the incentives, says Martin Connolly, founder of ICBN. A partner with Hospitality Business Reports, Connolly visited Cuba last May at the invitation of the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, to discuss the opening of an Irish gastropub and music and arts center in Old Havana. A site has now been selected for the cojoined venues in Old Havana, and construction will commence in the coming months.

“There are major opportunities for Irish companies,” Connolly said. “Cuba is like Ireland was in the 1970s and 1980s: we had visitors but not the infrastructure or standards they required.”

Tourism projects like hotels, golf courses and marinas, food processing, packaging, renewable energy, oil exploration and biotech are priority sectors for foreign investment. “Irish firms can form joint ventures with Cuban companies or enter into business as a foreign company without the involvement of any national investor,” Connolly said.