Cuba’s deputy trade minister will visit South Korea this week, becoming the highest ranking official from the Latin American country to do so since the countries’ diplomatic ties were severed in 1959, a local trade agency said Sunday.

Ileana Nunez Mordoche, deputy minister for foreign trade and investment, will arrive here Monday for an investment fair and hold one-on-one meetings with South Korean firms interested in investing in Cuba, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

The visit comes after Cuba’s economic reform in 2011 that has somewhat opened the country to foreign investors.

“Cuba has revised its law on foreign investment for the first time in 20 years to offer tax incentives to foreign investors and also to recognize their ownership of assets in Cuba,” a KOTRA official said.

The Cuban official is said to be seeking to attract fresh investment to her country’s agricultural, food, electronics, tourism and medical sectors.

KOTRA currently operates a trade information center in Havana, though no South Korean firm has any known operation in Cuba. (Yonhap)