Business & Economy

Cuban President Raúl Castro headed this Monday the summit meeting of his country and Venezuela, held at a beach resort in the central province of Villa Clara, to boost bilateral relations with a view to the Economic Union. The meeting ended with more than 100 signed projects that will allow for the expansion of bilateral cooperation and commercial exchange. Venezuela is Cuba’s leading trade partner.

Cuba received during the first half of this year 13,519 more tourists than the same period in 2009, which confirms the upward tendency of one of the principal sources of financial resources of this Caribbean country. According to data of the National Office of Statistics (ONE), up to the close of June a total of 1,389,712 visitors arrived, for a one per cent growth.

The experimental cultivation of sponges has increased from two to 12 hectares in the area of Carahatas, on the northern coast of the province of Villa Clara, barely two years after the start of a project as part of the Program of Small Donations of the UN Environment Fund.

Cuban specialists obtained a new formulation of the Heberpenta pentavalent vaccine, used to immunize children against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type B, announced Luis Herrera, director of the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Centre (CIGB). From now on all the medicine’s components will come in one bottle, which reduces storage costs and manipulation.

The number of tourist arrivals in Cuba increased by 14,479 up to last May, as compared to the same period in 2009. In a related development it was also announced Monday that Brazil’s Whitejets airline will fly once a week from the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to Cuba’s famous Varadero beach resort.

Cuban authorities announced Monday that preparatory work has begun for a national population and housing census to take place in 2012, as part of the World Population and Housing Program, approved by the UN Statistics Commission, said Oscar Mederos of the Cuban Office of Statistics.

The Los Angeles Times daily, one of the most important in the United States, urged Congress in an editorial on Sunday to pass a bill that would lift restrictions on travel to Cuba and would ease obstacles to bilateral trade. The newspaper states that the 50-year-old trade and travel prohibitions have failed to bring about democratic changes in the Caribbean country. In its editorial the L.A. Times also recognized the release of 52 political prisoners announced by Havana, but questioned the imprisonment of any person for that reason.

A year after El Salvador and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations the respective foreign ministers signed cooperation agreements in the fields of health and education during a meeting held Friday in Havana. The officials, Hugo Martinez Bonilla (El Salvador) and Cuba’s Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, also discussed promoting bilateral trade.

More than 17 per cent of the areas set aside for the planting of sugar cane in Cuba are idle, reported the island’s state-run press. During the last harvest yields per planted hectare were the worse in the country’s history, with barely 27 tons. Insufficient payment to producers, labor and technical indiscipline, and the lack of exigency and control of the directive are the principal causes of the decline.