Business & Economy

A national seminar began in Cuba yesterday for political leaders and economists from around the country in preparation for a nationwide discussion on the Communist Party and government´s proposals for economic and social policies for the country.

The Cuban government aims to expand the opening for foreign investment and reduce the State’s weight in the national economy. The authorities will also give greater opportunities to the development of the domestic private sector and will give autonomy to public enterprises, which will be eliminated if they are not efficient.

The International Havana Trade Fair (FIHAV 2010) will close its doors today in the Cuban capital with an increase in the number of participating countries, 58 on this occasion, but a decrease in the amount of business, which barely reached some 100 million dollars.

Citrus cultivation, the former symbol of the Isle of Youth, the second largest of the Cuban archipelago, is in a deep crisis, reported IPS. That sector’s cultivation areas have been affected by plagues, hurricanes and the spread of the marabú weed, in addition to organizational deficiencies, Camilo Company Azcuy, director of the Comandante Jesús Montané Oropesa Citrus Agro-industrial Company.

Trade with Venezuela represented 24.9 per cent of Cuba’s foreign commerce, which strengthens it as the island’s first trade partner, Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca affirmed. In the last five years the flow of imports and exports between both countries has amounted to more than 17 billion dollars.

Agricultural production decreased 5.1 per cent in the first nine months of 2010, as compared to the same period last year, according to a National Office of Statistics (ONE) report. Drought, organizational deficiencies and difficulties in financing were behind this contraction, despite the increase in planted areas and the handing over of idle land in usufruct, a process that began in 2008 to encourage food production.

Cuba strengthened its trade relations with Argentina, Canada and Mexico as a result of the exchanges held by representatives of the business sector during the International Havana Trade Fair, being held in this capital. The island increased its exports to Argentina from 1.5 million dollars in 2009 to 3.5 million this year, it was reported during this event, the largest business mart of the Caribbean country.

Cuban exports increased by 21 per cent in the third quarter of this year, while imports barely grew one per cent as compared to the same period in 2009, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca said when inaugurating the International Havana Trade Fair. According to the official, these results have made it possible to reduce by seven per cent the trade deficit of goods and improve the country’s liquidity problems.