The economic and trade advisor at the Chinese embassy in Cuba, Chen Feng, told the Opciones weekly that the investment will consist of 51 percent Chinese capital and 49 percent Cuban.

The hotel complex will have 650 rooms and cover an area of 7.5 hectares (about 19 acres) in the “Marina Hemingway” resort in western Havana.

The diplomat added that, as part of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of bilateral Cuban-Chinese relations, Havana will also host the 23rd Session of the Intergovernmental Commission for economic and trade relations later this year.

China is Cuba’s second commercial partner only behind Venezuela. Both countries currently have 13 mixed projects under way, seven of them on the island in the sectors of light and mechanical industry, communications, agricultural production and tourism.

As part of these increasing relations, the Gran Melia Shanghai hotel was inaugurated in Beijing last February. It was the result of an accord between its builders: the state-run Chinese firm Xintian (Suntime) and the Cuban firm Cubanacan. It is the first hotel in China to be managed by the Spanish hotel chain Sol Melia.