Business & Economy

The current winter season in Cuba could last until April, forecasted Evelio Alberto García Valdés, specialist with the Weather Forecast Centre of the Institute of Meteorology. According to the expert, in February the number of cold fronts doubled the average, which is of 3.38 fronts.

Cuba’s Cubalum Company and the Dominican Republic’s Sigmaplast signed a letter of intention to create a joint venture for the production of flexible printed material and the extraction of polyethylene, reported the local press. The joint venture will give the island access to cutting-edge technology and will expand the market for its Dominican counterparts.

Cuba’s Comptroller Gladys Bejerano Portela told the press on Wednesday that 40 percent of the State businesses her office inspected in 2009 were either deficient or highly deficient in their controls. The official said tighter internal controls are needed.

Cuba is at the head of the tourist sector in the Caribbean, affirmed Rafael Romeu, an official from the International Monetary Fund (IFM) in charge of economic projections for Latin America, when speaking at the 12th International Meeting of Economists on Globalization and Development Problems, being held in the Cuban capital. In 2009 the island reported the highest growth in tourist arrivals compared to the other countries in the area.

The drop in agricultural production in the province of Havana, bordering on the island’s capital, caused a lack of supplies in the markets in this city, reported IPS. In January and February the harvests did not exceed 65 per cent of the plan due to a lack of insecticides, fertilizers, fuel and organizational deficiencies.

Cuban authorities hope to expand the suburban agriculture program to 156 localities after good results in the 18 municipalities where that initiative began last January, affirmed Adolfo Rodríguez, national head of the project. The island also hopes to produce all the vegetable seeds it needs instead of imports.

The governments of Cuba and Brazil signed a dozen agreements in areas such as communications, health, maritime transportation and agriculture, which will strengthen bilateral relations, reported IPS. One of the contracts signed sealed the International Economic Association between the Quality Cuba S.A. and the Works and Infrastructures Company, in charge of the reconstruction of the port of Mariel, 30 miles west of Havana.

Cuban scientists hope to successfully produce in around three years a potato seed created in the country, with which it would save some 15 million dollars in imports, reported IPS. Several research centers are working towards this aim, among them the National Institute of Tropical Tubers and the Institute of Plant Biotechnology of the central province of Villa Clara.

Cuban authorities hope to expand in 2010 its charcoal exports to Europe based on marabú, a thorny shrub that propagates rapidly and that has become one of the principal obstacles for national agriculture, reported IPS. About a third of the arable land in Cuba is covered in marabú.

Cuba and Venezuela carried out the first transaction with the “Sucre”, a ledger book currency to be used for exchanges between members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). One Sucre is equivalent to 1.25 US Dollars.