Business & Economy

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez sent a commission of experts to Cuba to advise the island on how to address the oil slick from the Gulf of Mexico, which will possibly affect its coasts in a few weeks, announced the president. The delegation, headed by the vice president of the state-run PDVSA oil company, Eulogio Del Pino, will help to organize simulations to preview the consequences of the oil spill.

US and Cuban specialists are exchanging information in Havana on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with the aim of confronting this disaster’s possible consequences on the environment, informed Virginia Staab, spokesperson for the US State Department. She said that her government wants to maintain “a clear line of communication” on the matter with Havana.

Agricultural production reported strong decreases in the first quarter of this year as compared to 2009 in key food products in Cuba, according to a report by the National Office of Statistics (ONE). While the collection of tubers in general increased 4.5 per cent and rice, essential in the island’s diet, the production of beans and vegetables fell by 40.5 and 35.1 per cent, respectively. Moreover, citrus fruit decreased 21.6 per cent.

A lawsuit against the U.S. companies that carry out trips to Cuba could interrupt Miami-Havana flights if it is accepted by a state of Florida court, reported IPS citing Mexico’s La Jornada daily. The lawsuit presented by Ana Margarita Martínez would freeze the funds that those entities use to pay their counterpart in Cuba, Havanatur, and as a result the air link would be suspended.

Cuban specialists expressed their will to turn the country into an exporter of flowers, a product that used to be exported to the United States before 1959, it was reported to the press during the FLORIMAT 2010 First National Workshop, being held in the western city of Matanzas. The participants favored opening up to the introduction of clones and using the areas with microclimates in the island.

Cuba’s coasts will not be affected by the oil slick that is advancing in the Gulf of Mexico toward the United States due to the explosion of an oil rig Last April 20, affirmed Orlando Rey, a specialist with the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA). Nevertheless, the region’s biodiversity will suffer the effects of the oil spill, pointed out the expert.

The Cuban tourism authorities are negotiating 13 investment projects in marinas, golf courses and other tourist installations, announced Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero, who affirmed that the juridical instrument that regulates those agreements will come out soon. Marrero also recognized that tourism from the United States will be important “when the travel ban is lifted.”

Half of Cuba’s idle farmland still hasn’t been handed over for agricultural production under the government program to do so, said Orlando Lugo, president of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP). Nonetheless, according to Lugo, more than 60,000 persons have been incorporated to agricultural work and are already reaping benefits from a million hectares which had previously been invaded by shrubs such as marabú.

The up to 50 per cent increase in Cuban emigrants’ trips in the first four months of the year, as compared to 2009, has given a boost to tourist arrivals, which reached the unprecedented figure of 1,053,000 in these four months, Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero recognized when speaking at the International Tourism Fair being held in this capital.

Cuba will conclude this 2010 the worse sugar harvest since 1905 due to organizational errors and mistakes in the calculations made before the harvest of the country’s former most important economic sector, reported IPS. The poor results could be the main reason for the dismissal of Minister of the Sugar Industry Luis Manuel Avila González, announced on Monday.