Above: the Hotel Nacional de Cuba

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Cuba and Bolivia began their first-ever business forum and roundtable at the Hotel Nacional in Havana on Thursday.

The forum was led by Estrella Madrigal Valdes, the president of Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce, who called for increasing trade and business ties between the two countries.

Mario Antonio Yaffar, the head of Bolivia’s National Chamber of Industries, said he hoped that the countries could find agreements to complement their economies.

Among Cuban organizations attending were Cuba’s ILECO, ENPSES and the Ministry of Tourism, while Bolivian companies included TRD, CIMEX and Suchel Regalo, according to Cuba’s government.

It’s the latest bilateral business forum in Cuba, which has said it is seeking to reform its economic model into something President Raul Castro called a society “less egalitarian but more fair.”