ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993                   TAG: 9311080097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MEXICO CITY                                LENGTH: Short

CASTRO SAYS TOURISM WILL HELP CUBAN CRISIS

Tourist growth will help Cuba emerge from its current economic crisis, Cuban President Fidel Castro said, urging more foreign investment in the industry. But he insisted that Cuba's economy would remain socialist.

"Let's build an economy with more solid bases," Castro was quoted as saying. "Although it will be open to foreign capital to get the country moving, it will maintain its socialist character."

He spoke Saturday to the provincial assembly of the Cuban Communist Party, and his comments were carried Sunday by Cuba's official Prensa Latina news agency and the Mexican news agency Notimex, both monitored in Mexico City.

The island nation of 11 million people was a Caribbean tourist mecca before Castro's revolution in 1959, and its tourism revenues have taken on new significance during its current economic crisis. - Associated Press 


 by CNB