UI prof talks to Cuban entrepreneurs in Cuba

IOWA CITY — An associate professor at the University of Iowa recently spoke to about 60 entrepreneurs in Cuba, where the island’s socialist government controls the economy.

Dimy Doresca, director of the Institute for International Business in the Tippie College of Business, spent two days in August speaking to the Cubans about entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.

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He also met with five of the entrepreneurs to go over their business plans and help them build growth strategies for their businesses.

Doresca said he stressed how companies “can do business while being good citizens. Doing good is not the antithesis of doing well. ... You can be doing good things while making money.”

Doresca, a Haitian native who speaks Spanish, participates in an international speakers program managed by the U.S. State Department. The program sends Americans with entrepreneurial backgrounds to talk with people in countries with developing economies about entrepreneurship and business in general.

The program is particularly active in Cuba where the entrepreneurial and private sectors are growing — growth the U.S. government wants to encourage.

Doresca, who has a degree in business administration from Augustana College and a master’s degree in international affairs from Georgetown University, also has presented business programs in Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United States.

While in Cuba, the U.S. Embassy in Havana arranged for Doresca to meet with Cuban government officials about what Iowa businesses might have to offer Cuba. Possibilities. he said, include agricultural equipment, health care and hospitality.

Cuba could be a big market for Iowa corn, soybeans and agricultural equipment and perhaps vehicle parts, Doresca said, adding that Cuba's stock of vehicles and ag equipment is old.

Many of the vintage cars in Cuba are just "shells" that the Cubans have somehow found ways to keep running, Doresca said. Parts to fix them are not available, so that could be another area of U.S. trade interest, he said.

In exchange, he said, Cuba could trade such items as coffee, honey, rum and cigars.

Doresca said he’s exploring whether Iowa companies might be interested in a trade mission to Cuba.

“It wouldn’t hurt Iowa companies to explore opportunities in doing business in Cuba,” he said.