Business & Economy

The 13th edition of the Havana Cigar Festival will begin today in the Cuban capital’s Convention Centre, with the participation of more than 1,200 specialists and cigar aficionados from some 80 countries, the event’s Organizing Committee reported. The meeting includes, among other activities, two contests on the connection of rum and wine with cigars, visits to tobacco plantations and cigar factories, and the election of the “Havana Cigar Man of the Year.”

The poor results are also linked to the lack of labor force’s motivation. “No one is motivated if they don’t earn enough to feed well their families, without good working tools, and if with their daily sweat they can’t aspire to improve or build their home.”

A motion in the US Senate that aimed to block trips from any U.S. airport to Cuba was abandoned by its authors, senators Marco Rubio and Roberto Menendez, says the Miami Herald. The measure was strongly criticized by the Tampa Chamber of Commerce in Florida, interested in opening that city’s airport to flights to the island.

Cuba and India will strengthen their collaboration in the area of natural medicine, as a result of the visit to that Asian country by Concepción Campa, director of the Finlay Institute, who toured several research centers related to practices such as yoga and homeopathy. In a lecture at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India, Campa highlighted the advances made by the island in biotechnology, especially in the production of vaccines.

Cuba saved more than 10 million dollars in 2010 from the retreading of tires, Iris Carrazana González, economic director of the National Tire Company, announced. According to the specialist, the island hopes to increase this year its industrial capacities in this sector, to reach some 135,000 tires.

The Cuban tax office know as the ONAT, is carrying out a campaign to get taxpayers to pay up on time instead of falling behind and risking penalties. Ana Evora a specialist at ONAT said that as in previous years, personal income taxes should be paid up by March 1. She noted that those persons who became self-employed in the last four months of 2010 will have a one-time exemption from filing.

Cuban-American senators Bob Menendez and Marc Rubio presented an amendment that would block any flight from the United States to the island or any other country considered a sponsor of terrorism, according to the list drawn up by Washington. In January, President Barack Obama lifted a group of restrictions to facilitate “people-to-people” contacts between the two countries.

The more than 8,000 computers in the University of Computer Science (UCI) will soon migrate to the open-code Nova Linux 3.0 operating system, with which it will become the first educational center in Cuba to begin using exclusively free software, Abel Firvida, chief of the Nova project, affirmed.

Cuba and China increased the volume of their bilateral trade in 2010, which amounted to 1.8 billion dollars, Liu Yuquin, Chinese ambassador to the island, announced. However, that figure is still below the 2.2 billion registered in 2008. The Asian country sells automobiles, buses and electric appliances to its Caribbean trade partner, which exports rum, sugar and biotechnological products.

Cuba presented the new version of the NOVA operational system, based on Linux, as part of its strategy to migrate to free software. At the presentation made at the 2011 Informatics Fair, the deputy rector of the University of Computer Sciences (UCI), Héctor Rodríguez, affirmed that NOVA is a very promising system for businesses, because it is adaptable to the needs of clients and offers greater informatics security.