Business & Economy

Cuban lawyers and legal expects will take a look at existing agricultural policy next week and are expected to propose amendments and new regulations.

The president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, will arrive this afternoon in Havana, where she will hold talks with Cuban President Raul Castro. Brazil is currently bankrolling major economic projects on the island.

High level authorities from Cuba and Belarus met in Havana this month to increase cooperation in information technology, transmission and communications to apply tighter controls on the Internet.

A National Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba will begin Saturday morning and run through Sunday at the Havana Convention Center with the participation of 811 delegates. The delegates will focus discussion on the reorganization of the party in the wake of the approval of the “Guidelines” for economic “updating” at the 6th Party Congress last April.

When Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff arrives in Cuba for an official visit next Tuesday a meeting with dissidents of the Castro government is not on her agenda.

The first secretary of the Communist Party in Guantanamo province, Luis Torres Iribar, today criticized the sugar industry in that territory for production shortfalls.

Some 530 bank loan applications have been approved just one month after the authorization of this operation, reported officials on the “Mesa Redonda” television news/commentary program.

Cuba will be making substantial investments to increase rice production, having already purchased more than 70 new tractors and 120 harvesters. Cuba currently imports more than half of all its domestically consumed rice.