Business & Economy

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.

The Partagás cigar factory, located in the Cuban capital, donated 23,600 convertible pesos (around 29,000 dollars) to the country’s health system. The donation comes from its annual meeting, which on this occasion convened more than 400 specialists in the production and sale of this product as well as cigar aficionados from around a dozen countries.

The trial begun by Ana Margarita Martínez, ex wife of a Cuban spy, who is demanding 27 million dollars from the airlines that carry out charter flights to Cuba, will remain in a federal court due to the U.S. government’s interest in the case, Judge Federico A. Moreno announced. Washington and the affected companies agree that the result of this demand could paralyze flights to Cuba.

Cuban intellectual Alfredo Guevara, president of the New Latin American Film Festival, backed the process of shrinking the State’s role in Cuba and expressed his hope that the government will limit its functions and allow the development of society, in a press conference held in the island’s capital. The government of Raúl Castro has begun a series of economic reforms that should be deepened in 2011, after the holding of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party.

Spain’s Sol Meliá chain will open the Buenavista Hotel in December, the 25th on the list of hotel installations managed by that company in Cuba, Juan Carlos López, city hotel sales head of the Marketing Department on the island, announced. The new five-star, 105-room all-inclusive is located on Cayo Santa María, on the northern central coast.

Cuban specialists will share their experiences on ecological and sustainable agriculture with more than 700 colleagues from 16 countries during the 7th Scientific Congress of the Agricultural Sciences Institute (ICA), to be held at the headquarters of this center in San José de las Lajas, south of the island’s capital, from November 23 to 26,

The Council of Ministers of Cuba approved the Economic Plan and State Budget for 2011 during a meeting held this weekend, the island’s state-run press reported today. That strategy, which has to be approved by parliament, begins a five-year period marked by the so-called updating of Cuban socialism.

Cuba’s insurance authorities have published a complete list of the foreign travel policy sellers that are valid for visiting the island. Here is an explanation on how to explore the list.

For the first time in its history Cuba received more than two million tourists from January to October, the National Office of Statistics announced. In the last 10 months, 2,068,409 visitors came to the island, which represents a 3.4 per cent increase as compared to last year.

Russia could become a major market for Cuban cigars, Gonzalo Fernández, assistant director of Marketing Operations of the Habanos S.A. company, said in statements to the press in Moscow, during the Havana Cigar Festival held in the Russian capital.