Business & Economy

Alfredo Morales Cartaya, Cuba’s former minister of Labor and Social Security died on Saturday in Havana after suffering a heart attack. Morales Cartaya, 62, was a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and also a member of the country’s parliament. He was previously the secretary general of the Cuban Worker’s Federation (CTC).

Cuba’s state run Union Electrica power company announced a rate hike on Friday for consumers of more than 300 kilowatts per month. The firm said the increase was needed because of higher oil prices on the international market.

The latest initial rules and regulations for self-employment and small business in Cuba are being sold at newsstands around the country. Juventud Rebelde newspaper has posted the official Gaceta publication in two documents online (in Spanish).

Representatives of public health in Cuba expressed their backing for the reorganization of the labor force, greater economic efficiency and improving services for the population when speaking at the 10th Congress of the Public Health Trade Union, being held in the island’s capital, reported IPS. The Cuban authorities have begun a program of cutting back on spending on health care to face the economic crisis.

Cuba ranked 69th among 178 countries studied in the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, carried out by the Transparency International global network. The island, with a result of 3.7 on 10, ranked in 9th place in the Americas, where the list of less corrupt nations is headed by Canada, with 8.9.

Cuba will begin before this year closes the marketing of Vidatox, a medicine produced based on the blue scorpion (Rophalorous Junceus) venom, which has analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties, sources from the Biological Pharmaceutical Laboratories (LABIOFAM) announced. This therapy against cancer has been already used with positive results on around 14,000 persons.

The UN General Assembly will vote Wednesday on the resolution “Need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba,” presented by the island for the 19th time. In 2009, the vote passed 187-3 with only Israel and Palau supporting the United States in its half century attempt to bring down the Cuban government through imposing economic suffering on its country’s people.

Cuba began the experimental application of irrigation with central pivot in rice cultivation, a technique that would imply saving more than 60 per cent water, in addition to using less seeds, specialists from the Rice Agro-Industrial Group and the Grain Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture announced. That experience has been successfully used in countries such as Brazil, Panama and Spain. Rice is a basic dish in the diet of Cuban families.

Venezuela’s programme for the general care of diabetic patients will start applying the Cuban medicine Heberprot-P, of proven effectiveness in the cure of diabetic foot ulcers, the local press reported. That medicine, which has already benefitted more than 18,000 patients on the island, was created by the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Centre (CIGB).

A guide for self employed workers and small businesses is for sale at newsstands in Cuba as of Monday. The pamphlet details the tax scheme for those who lose their jobs in the public sector layoffs taking place on the island and seek an alternative in what will become a larger private sector.