On 19 June 2015 we had the pleasure to have a very nice dinner meeting with Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva and Ricardo Torres in a small restaurant in the center of The Hague, the Netherlands. Omar and Ricardo are two Cuban economists who advice the Cuban government on the economical reformations, next to their multiple other activities and jobs. Both were in the Netherlands for a week by invitation of the Dutch Embassy in Havana, Cuba. The objective of their visit was to get acquainted with the Netherlands and the role of the Dutch businesses and government on topics like innovation, renewable energy, agriculture, water and logistics. On the last evening of their intense week Omar and Ricardo freed up some time to have dinner with us, in the presence of Taco Meijer (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Madeleine Klinkhamer (Ayani BV) as well.
The dinner meeting was very relaxed and we had an open discussion regarding our thoughts on setting up small and growing business development and inclusive finance activities in Cuba. Omar and Ricardo have written various articles and books on the matter and are supporters of further developing the Cuban inclusive finance sector as well as entrepreneurship. Although they expressed their reservations for a foreign party to step into the development of the inclusive finance sector in Cuba they warmly welcomed our initiative, which made us even more eager to continue our adventure.
We kept on having contact with each other, exchanged ideas and thoughts. Omar was the initiator to connect us with Francesco Paco Borrás, Vice President to ANEC (La Asociación Nacional de Economistas y Contadores de Cuba) in Havana, Cuba. In February we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ANEC (our Cuban alliance party), resulting in the first workshops in April for small and growing entrepreneurs in Havana. We provide the workshops in close cooperation with ANEC and are exited to inform you that we are in the midst of rolling out our collaborative pilot programme till the end of August.
Omar is one of our key figures in Cuba, next to Oscar Luis Hung Pentón, President to ANEC, and Francesco Paco Borrás. We are overwhelmed and very proud that he has accepted our invite to become a member to our Advisory Board. We warmly welcome Omar and look forward to working with him on making our initiative successful!
Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva is a professor and Researcher in Economics who advises the Cuban government on the economical reformations. Omar is the formal Director of the CEEC (Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, University of Havana). He graduated in 1984 in Economics at the University of Havana. He continued his education and obtained his Master in Economical and International Political Sciences at CIDE, Mexico in 1990 and his Ph. D. in Economics at the University of Havana 1990. Omar is one of the key figures in the Cuban economical reformation process and advises the Cuban government on the reformations. He has done a lot of research in the field of the national and international economy. In addition, Omar has published more than 80 articles and is the co-author of various publications.