Business & Economy

The Cuban government hopes to be able to transport 52 per cent of domestic trade by railroad by 2011, Minister of Transportation César Arocha affirmed. To achieve this, the island is working on the repair of 6,000 kilometers of railways, in addition to investing five billion dollars in the purchase of locomotives and cars.

Cuba will be the venue of a golf tournament sponsored by former Mexican athlete Ana Guevara on October 13-17, the Athens 2004 Olympic silver medal winner announced in a press conference held in Varadero beach resort, some 120 kilometers east of the island’s capital. The Cuban authorities are planning the construction of 16 new golf courses in the Caribbean island nation as part of a program to boost tourism.

Rio Zaza had a virtual monopoly on selling packaged fruit juices within Cuba. After the mysterious death of its general manager Roberto Baudrand, the product suddenly disappeared from Cuban supermarkets, bars and restaurants. No explanation was forthcoming.

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Bill Delahunt asked U.S. President Barack Obama to allow the operation of flights to and from Cuba in the airport in Tampa, south of Florida, with the aim of facilitating access of Cuban-American families to trips to the island, the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald reported. Until now the authorized airports are in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Cuba presented the Art of Beer Cultural Route, a tourist package that tours 30 sites in the eastern city of Holguín related to the history and present of that beverage, the local press reported. The initiative opens tomorrow, precisely one week before the start of the carnival in that city, known for the production of the Mayabe beer.

Cuba’s coffee harvest for the 2010-2011 cycle should be between 20 and 25 percent higher than the poor showing last year. Last season was the worst coffee harvest in over a half century and combined with the worst sugar harvest in over a century in the struggling Cuban agriculture.

Cuba will build residential complexes annexed to 16 new golf courses, whose dwellings can be purchased by persons from other countries, affirmed Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero. The official said that the measure should come into force before the end of the year, after the legal regulations have concluded regarding aspects such as the sales contracts and the immigration status of the owners.

The governments of China and Cuba ratified this Saturday the mutual interest in strengthening “economic and commercial cooperation” as well as “high-level” exchanges between both countries, after a meeting of foreign ministers held in Havana.

The foreign ministers of China and Cuba, Yang Jichei and Bruno Rodríguez, respectively, presided over the signing of an economic, technical and commercial cooperation agreement.

There are 13 Cuba-China joint ventures, seven of them in communications, agricultural production and tourism, reported IPS.

Cuba maintains a close watch on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and is foreseeing the measures in case of an impact by the spill, affirmed Cuban Minister of Basic Industry Yadira García to MPs from the energy and environment commission of the National Assembly of People’s Power. García said it is necessary to remain alert in face of this risk, for which a working group was created made up by the Civil Defense and high-level specialists.

Cuba has 220 science and technology centers, an institutional foundation that has allowed it to achieve transcendental results such as the Va-Mengoc-BC vaccine, the first and only effective one in the world against group B meningococcus, winner of the Gold Medal of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Fernando González, first deputy minister of science, technology and the environment, said that the fundamental pillar of national scientific policy is the cooperation and integration of all the institutions, which includes the application and generalization of the achievements in the country.