Business & Economy

The 2010-2011 sugar harvest began with the start of grinding at two sugar mills in western Cuba. Thirty-nine sugar factories will be working in this campaign, four less than the previous harvest, the worse in more than a century.

The Cuban community in the United States has become the second source of visitors to Cuba, reported IPS. It is estimated that this year some 330,000 persons will travel to the island on direct flights from the United States. This takeoff responds to the lifting of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans decreed in 2009 by President Barack Obama. Other US citizens are not allowed to visit Cuba with special US Treasury Dept. permission.

After having closed the doors to cruise ships in 2005, Cuba is retaking that tourism alternative with the start of operations by two vessels, the Gemini and the Russian ship Adriana.. Every year the island receives more than two million tourists, the majority from Canada and some European countries.

The United States Congress will not discuss in its last sessions of this year a bill that would have lifted the restrictions on travel to Cuba, said Democratic Senator Bill Delahunt. Starting January, the bill could face a definitive opposition in the new House of Representatives, dominated by the Republican Party, and in the Senate where the Democrats lost part of their majority.

The governments of Cuba and France resumed official cooperation, after more than seven years of rupture because of the imprisonment of dissidents on the island in 2003. Both countries will concentrate their collaboration in areas such as agriculture, health, the environment, scientific research, the teaching of French and culture.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov affirmed today in the Russian capital of Moscow that inter-parliamentary cooperation between his country and Cuba surpassed the simple stage of exchange of delegations. In the new stage of contacts by specific departments, the economic issue will have top-notch attention, Riabkov said.

The Cuban government eliminated restrictions and simplified the procedures for renting homes in order to facilitate self-employment and alleviate the housing deficit the country is facing, the official media commented today. A new regulation on the subject authorizes the renting of homes even for persons with Cuban nationality who have permits to reside abroad.

The Cuban authorities have received more than 80,000 applications for self-employment since the start of the reform begun by the government last October to expand the private sector on the island, announced the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This opening hopes to absorb part of the 500,000 persons who will be jobless up to March 2011.

The urban and suburban agriculture programmes will be extended to 156 of the 169 municipalities of Cuba before the close of the year, said Adolfo Rodriguez, head of the National Group in charge of that initiative, which until now has 36,000 farms throughout the island. The Caribbean country’s authorities are promoting the local production of food to reduce imports, estimated at more than two billion dollars.