Business & Economy

Representatives of the Cuban and U.S. tourist sector began talks Wednesday in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun to explore the potentials of a possible lifting of the U.S. travel to Cuba ban. The island’s authorities estimate that around 1.7 million tourists could arrive from the neighboring country each year if the current restrictions did not exist.

The Cuban authorities will relocate more than 40,000 persons who work indirectly in the agricultural sector, as well as eliminate around 100 state-run companies that are not profitable, announced Minister of Agriculture Ulises Rosales del Toro.

The head of the Cuban Civil Aeronautics Institute is to be replaced, announced the Council of State on Monday. Brigade General Ramon Martinez will take over for General Rogelio Acevedo, the current president of the Institute. Martinez is the second in command at the Air Force.

If these countries actually desire to use US Internet companies is another subject. In the case of Cuba, to date the island’s government has put it hopes on improving its Internet capacity and services via a fiber optic cable to be laid from Venezuela to Jamaica to Cuba.

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.