Business & Economy

The introduction of Vietnamese engineered technological improvements in the cultivation of rice has resulted in yield increases of 30 percent in areas where these were applied in the central Cuban province of Cienfuegos.

Capital repair has been completed in Sancti Spiritus Province on the Casilda-Trinidad-Meyer railroad line, which is a vital link for connecting the Ingenios Valley and the Escambray mountain range.

Specialists at the Hermanos Saiz University, in the western province of Pinar del Rio, have presented their new product: FAPIL, a new natural plant insecticide.

Cuba has a population of 11,163,934 people, according to preliminary data from the Census of the Population and Housing, presented at the last 2012 session of the Council of Ministers this past Friday.

According to figures provided on Friday by Cuban Minister of Economy and Planning, Adel Yzquierdo, the island will end 2012 with a growth rate of 3.1 percent in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Cuban government announced today that it will repeal a law passed under former President Fidel Castro in 2000 that imposed a 10 percent tax on every phone call made between the island and the United States.

The governments of Cuba and Haiti, on Wednesday in Havana, signed eight cooperation agreements in the fields of health, education, agriculture, food industry, and iron and steel.

Cuba’s Council of State on Thursday confirmed the elimination of the Ministry of Basic Industry (MINBAS) and the creation of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

The Cuban government expects that in three years its fleet of oceanic freight carriers will recover to levels similar to those of the 1980s. The overall strategy of the Ministry of Transportation is to develop the use of its rail and maritime fleet to replace shipments of goods by truck.