Business & Economy

The Cuban government will begin a program of massive layoffs in the huge public sector of the economy by reducing a half million jobs in the first four months of 2011, announced the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC).

The Cuban authorities will do without the mobilization of students and other personnel not linked to agricultural work to assume the 2010-2011 coffee harvest, as part of a plan to reduce expenditures during the international economic crisis, IPS reported. The measure, one of the agreements of the past 10th Congress of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), will put in the hands of the farm cooperatives the major part of the responsibility in this crop, whose per-hectare yields have dropped by a third over the last decade.

The fourth wind park built in Cuba, in the northeastern region of Gibara, today entered its final stage of civil construction and technological adjustments for its start up, reported IPS. The installation is made up by six machines capable of generating up to 4,500 kilowatt-hours, built on platforms sufficiently high to avoid the effect of sea encroachments.

Cuba will try to recover one of its traditional citrus areas with the planting of 30 new hectares in the area of Ceiba, in Caimito, southwest of the Cuban capital, the local press reported. This region’s crops were devastated by Huanglongbing (Yellow Dragon), a plague that destroyed 40-year-old plantations. The plan comprises extending the planting to 3,000 hectares by 2015.

The subsistence of persons in Cuba “depends primarily on the black market and not on the state economy,” according to the conclusions of a survey carried out by the independent Cubabarómetro pollster, which is coordinated by oppositionist Darsi Ferrer. The study, which is based on a sample of 381 inhabitants of the island’s capital, suggests the application of “liberalizing measures that have an influence on the conversion of the underground economy” into a new private economy of small businesses.

In anticipation of more direct flights from the United States, Cuba begins expansion in September on the terminal of the Jose Marti International Airport that receives flights from the US, reported IPS. The investment occurs as a result of increased flights of Cuban-Americans, who are allowed by Washington to visit Cuba, and the possible opening of travel for other US citizens currently prohibited by the nearly half century travel ban on the island.

The Cuban government extended from 50 to 99 years the right to the use of state lands by companies from other countries that invest in the island, with the aim of “giving foreign investors greater security and guarantee in real estate businesses, for the sustainable development of the country and the national economy,” according to a decree published in the Gaceta Oficial.

The Cuban government has decided to eliminate the monthly quota of cigarettes distributed through the nationwide basic products rationing system. The smokes were available way below cost on the same list as subsidized food and hygiene products, reported IPS on Wednesday. The move is part of the policy of President Raul Castro to reduce government spending.