Business & Economy

Cubans who don’t receive remittances from abroad, tips, bonuses or black market dollars were dealt another blow to their family economies as the government announced that soap, detergent and toothpaste would be removed from the rationed items starting the first of the New Year.

In a year of difficult times for cash strapped Cuba and shortages facing its citizens, an agreement between the US government and Western Union is leading to an increased value of remittances sent to families in the Caribbean country. The new authorization from the US Treasury Dept. took affect at the beginning of last week. Western Union said on its website that the change is “great news for our clients!”

Cuba will send in February several shipments of building materials and mattresses as humanitarian aid for the persons affected by the intense rains in Venezuela, Rogelio Polanco, Cuban ambassador to that South American country, announced. The aid consists of 6,900 tons of cement, 500,000 squares meters of roof tiles, 200,000 square meters of floor tiles and 32,000 foam rubber mattresses.

The president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), Orlando Lugo, called on Cuba’s farmers to meet the production goals established with the government to avoid food imports such as rice, beans and corn, in statements to the National Plenary Meeting of the National Committee of that organization.

Unemployed persons working on the informal market represent 60 per cent of applicants for self-employment licenses, after the recent opening decreed by the government in 178 activities of this type, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

The Cuban-Venezuelan Cuvenpetrol joint venture will carry out modernization and expansion works in 2011 on the refinery in Cienfuegos, 250 km east of the Cuban capital, affirmed Ramón Curapiaca, the Venezuelan representative in that industry, which hopes to increase its processing capacity from 65,000 to 150,000 barrels a day of crude. The new works will make it possible to produce diesel with low sulphur content, improving the reliability of the electric power system and advancing in the construction of the liquefied gas factory.

Spain’s Sol Meliá hotel company inaugurated the Meliá Buenavista Hotel, a deluxe installation with Royal Service, in Cayo Santa María, on the northern coast of Cuba, Gabriel García, marketing director of the Cuba Division, announced. That company manages 21 per cent of all the rooms built on the island and in two decades of operations has contributed 3.664 billion dollars to the country.

The governments of Cuba and The Ukraine hope to strengthen bilateral cooperation in areas such as medicine, industry and tourism, the media reported after the meeting in Havana between the respective foreign ministers, Bruno Rodríguez and Konstantin Grishenko, According to the Ukrainian official, in 2010 there was a significant increase in commercial exchange, which last year was 23.5 million dollars.

National tourism became the second source of visitors for Varadero beach resort, 120 kilometers east of the Cuban capital, reported industry sources. In 2010 the arrival of Cuban tourists to the peninsula grew by nine per cent. Every year Varadero receives more than a million vacationers, led by Canadians.

Despite the four per cent growth in tourist arrivals to Cuba until last November, the tourist sector’s income did not meet the forecast of the island’s authorities, the National Office of Statistics (ONE) reported. In 2011, the Caribbean country hopes to increase by 29.5 per cent the amount of money that enters the nation through that means, as a result of a 10.3 per cent increase in the number of visitors.