Business & Economy

Cuban President Raul Castro said today that his government “will comply with the entire program” of reforms approved at the last Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. However he lowered expectations around the “First Party Conference,” to be held on January 28 and 29.

This year the Cuban government will provide up to 160 million pesos ($8 million USD) in subsidies aimed at supporting the construction or repair of houses for the needy, reported the Trabajadores newspaper.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Cuba today on an official visit in which he will meet with President Raul Castro. The trip is aimed at promoting bilateral relations.

Wendy Cole, the editor of the US magazine Realtor, traveled to Cuba recently because of her interest in discovering the potential of the real estate market on the island.

US inspectors gave a clean bill of health to the offshore drill rig that will be seeking to find significant Cuban oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico north of the island. The US Geological Survey sees vast oil reserves located in Cuban waters, estimated as high as 9 billion barrels.

Managers acknowledged that these subsidies — whose ceiling is 80,000 Cuban pesos (about $3,200 USD) — will offer some limited help but is not seen as the complete solution to the housing problems of the country.

Rousseff’s trip to Havana is designed to seek an increase in bilateral exchange at a time when Cuba implements reforms that signify an opening in its economy for investment.

About 80 percent of all private sector workers on the island have joined the trade union movement, said Salvador Valdes Mesa, the general secretary of the Confederation of Cuban Workers.

As of the beginning of this month, the Astro Business Group was renamed the National Bus Company, and its “corporate structure was reduced.”