For more than 20 years, the Vietnamese consortium Thai Binh, with its factory on the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM), has been a market leader in Cuba and proof of the island’s potential to host foreign investment for the benefit of both the Cubans and the foreign businesspeople.
After two years in operation, general director Vi Nguyen Phuong stresses that meeting domestic demand stands as a major motivation among the entity’s mostly young female staff.
Inaugurated on November 19, 2019 by Thai Binh Global Investment Corporation, this factory was the first one to make disposable diapers and tampons in Cuba. Likewise, in June 2021, it opened a line of wet wipes for the domestic market.
The Caribe chain of stores, CIMEX Corporation and the Caracol Commercial Enterprise are Thai Binh’s main customers, albeit the company is also exporting its production to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since day one, the factory’s employees have been involved in the Cuban social assistance and donation programs for the benefit of hospitals, schools and other entities across Cuba. Their most recent contribution, together with Autocentro ZED S.A., a Russian Kamaz company also based in the ZEDM, was in December 2021, when they gave large quantities of imported medical resources to the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), including disposable syringes, pulmonary ventilators, hoses, oxygen sensors and other materials.
Thai Binh has also signed production and distribution contracts with other Cuban entities and has plans to open three new production lines in 2022 to expand its scope and meet more local needs in the context of the benefits that the ZEDM provides, according to its executives.