Cuba is opening for business, and the opportunities are tremendous.

Conservative pundits may decry President Barack Obama's decision to begin normalizing relations with Cuba, but smart business people know that the best way to defeat communism is with capitalism. Cuba is in desperate need of investment and early movers into Cuba will do more to bring democracy to that country than any treaty negotiated between politicians.

Cuba is a 42,000-square-mile tropical island that is home to 11 million people with a high literacy rate. The country has a $212 billion economy, with 17 percent of the labor force employed by manufacturing.

The Spanish oil company Repsol in 2004 estimated that Cuba's offshore oil reserves totaled between 4.6 million and 9.3 billion barrels, but Repsol came up with dry holes during exploratory drilling. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised in July to help Cuba tap those reserves.

U.S. companies have been barred from bidding on Cuba's oil projects due to the sanctions against the Havana government imposed in 1961. That would come to an end if the upcoming talks are successful and relations with the U.S. return to normal.

Cuba offers tremendous opportunities if the sanctions are lifted. The country has been caught in a time warp and is in desperate need of new infrastructure and updated technology. The country's tobacco and oil exports, combined with tourism income, provide enough cash to pay for these necessary upgrades.

The government in Havana knows it needs help, and they've sought investment from Europe and Latin America. Business people in these countries have hesitated, though, due to Cuba's socialist economic system and the poor relations with the United States.

The decision to open talks with Washington is Havana's way of signaling that real change is coming to the island, if not in terms of regime, certainly in terms of economic policy and international relations. Rather than denounce the crack in a 60-year-old policy of trying to isolate the Castro regime, business people should push the door open and bring the economic revolution the country and its people need.