HAVANA (Sputnik) — President Barack Obama is meeting with Cuban entrepreneurs within the framework of Cuba-US Business Forum to discuss conducting business online, the Sputnik correspondent reported from Havana on Monday.
"At this afternoon’s entrepreneurship event, I will discuss additional steps we are taking to help more Cubans learn, innovate and do business online, because in the 21 century countries cannot be successful unless their citizens have access to the Internet," Obama stated at the joint press conference with Cuban President Raul Castro.
The event, organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba (CCC), focuses on business opportunities offered by the markets on the island nation.
Despite the reduction in tensions, the United States continues to maintain a trade embargo on Cuba mandated by Congress, even though Obama has been trying to persuade both chambers of the US legislative body lift the restrictions.
Since the United States restored formal diplomatic ties with Cuba in July 2015, Obama has chipped away at the embargo with a series of executive orders that have opened the island nation to US tourists and some business ventures.
The US restrictions on overall trade will remain in place until Congress changes or scraps a 1960 law that put the embargo in place.
