New York`s Cuomo talks business with Cuban VP

Havana: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo met Tuesday with Cuba`s First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel to discuss business opportunities between his state and the communist island, Cuban media said.

Cuomo, the first US governor to visit Cuba since Washington and Havana announced a historic rapprochement in December, is traveling with a delegation of executives from companies such as MasterCard, airline JetBlue and pharmaceutical firm Pfizer.

He and Diaz-Canel, the number two official in the Cuban government, "discussed the process of updating the Cuban economic model, relations between Cuba and the United States and the prospects for developing the ties between the state of New York and Cuba," said Cuban state news agency AIN.

Before the meeting, the Democratic governor visited the new port being built at Mariel, just west of Havana, an ambitious infrastructure project that President Raul Castro`s government hopes will establish Cuba as a regional shipping hub and attract one million containers a year.

Cuomo and his delegation arrived in Havana Monday for a 24-hour visit, underlining the growing interest of US companies to get a foothold in Cuba as the countries move to restore ties.

The financial and trade embargo the United States slapped on Cuba in 1962 still bans nearly all business with the island, but US firms are already maneuvering in anticipation that Congress will lift it in the not-too-distant future.

New York, the heart of the US financial industry, is keen to get in on the action.

Some firms that were along for the trip already have a green light from President Barack Obama`s administration to do some business with the island.

MasterCard announced in January it would begin allowing clients with US-issued cards to use them in Cuba, after new guidelines from the US Treasury Department`s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

And JetBlue can theoretically begin flying to the island after the White House softened travel restrictions -- though the countries must negotiate a new air services agreement first.