Chronicle on Cuba - March 2007

Economy

March 1: The cost of inter-provincial bus travel for Cubans will quadruple. The Cuban Ministry of Finance and Prices approved a new base rate to establish the price of inter-provincial bus tickets, which is 4.2 times higher than the current one. The price of domestic air tickets in Cuba has increased by almost 100 %. (EER, 1/3/07)

March 2: Sherritt International, a Canadian energy company, said it plans to export Cuban oil for the first time -- a move that could put the crude on a collision course with the US trade embargo against Cuba. Details are few, but questions about the move go to the heart of the embargo: Where will the oil be refined? And how could Sherritt International or subsequent handlers keep the Cuban crude out of fuel being exported to the United States? Michael Minnes, company spokesman, said plans for exporting the oil are still under discussion. ''We respect US law,'' Minnes said from Sherritt's Toronto headquarters. ``We have no intention of selling it into a situation that would affect the embargo.'' Minnes said demand in Cuba for the oil has dropped because the island is increasingly using diesel generators for electricity production instead of burning crude. Sherritt doesn't currently have offshore wells; instead, its onshore equipment drills horizontally into petroleum reservoirs located under the water. Sherritt International, in a joint venture with the Cuban government, has been drilling for oil in Cuba for more than a decade, gradually increasing production to the point that domestic production provides almost half Cuba's petroleum needs. Venezuelan refined products make up the rest. (The Miami Herald, 2/3/07)

March 2: Wealthy cigar aficionados toasted the health of ailing leader Fidel Castro and shelled out $728,000 at an annual auction of elaborate humidors that for the first time did not bear the signature of the 80-year-old revolutionary. Proceeds from the auction of five wooden-and-bronze humidors stuffed with hundreds of the island's exclusive hand-rolled cigars will go to Cuba's health-care system. The amount raised was similar to past years. But this year's auction, during a dinner at the close of the annual Habanos cigar festival, was the first in the festival's nine years for which Castro had not signed the humidors. "The president has not been well. I am sure that you will join me in wishing him a full return to health," said auctioneer Simon Chase, leading a toast among the hundreds of cigar connoisseurs from around the world before he opened the bidding on the chests filled with famous Cuban cigar brands such as Cohiba and Montecristo. About 800 people from more than 40 nations attended this year's elegant dinner wrapping up five days of seminars on the qualities of Cuba's finest smokes, as well as trips to tobacco fields, curing houses and cigar factories. Paying $550 a head, they dined on a seafood appetizer with lobster, shrimp, salmon, vegetables and caviar and a salted beef filet with mushrooms in guava sauce. Each dish was accompanied by wine and a special cigar. Through Habanos S.A., a partnership of the Cuban government and the Spanish-French tobacco firm Altadis, the island produces more than a third of the world's cigars for export, with sales of $370 million last year. (AP, 2/3/07)

March 2: One of the main worries of the average Cuban family is food, which costs about two-thirds of their income, according to several studies. Family ration books are given out annually, and rationing is used by the Cuban government to ensure that every citizen has access to a basket of basic goods at subsidised prices, covering "not less than half of people’s nutritional requirements," according to official estimates. The system should guarantee equitable distribution of rice, beans, sugar, coffee, oil, eggs, salt, pasta, bread and biscuits, fish, chicken, other meats like sausages, and milk and yoghurt for children. Monthly expenditure per person on subsidised, rationed goods varies from 26 to 38 pesos, according to a study by the University of Havana Centre for Studies on the Cuban Economy (CEEC). Rationed goods supplied families' basic needs adequately until the 1980s, but now it only covers their needs for 10 or 12 days a month, according to both researchers and consumers. For the rest of their food, consumers have to go to the agromercados, where a variety of high quality food is available, but prices are set by supply and demand. "Workers living on a salary have a hard time of it, because their wages can buy a lot of price-controlled goods, but they can't afford other necessary items that are sold at market prices," Central Bank president Francisco Soberón admitted in late 2005. A survey of households carried out by the National Statistics Office in 2001 found that over 66.3 percent of the expenditure of residents in Havana went to food and drink, and only 33.7 percent to other consumption. (IPS, 2/3/07)

March 2: Cuba has floated a proposal to boost trade with Panama by reducing tariffs on a range of goods, Cuba's foreign minister said during a visit to the Central American nation. Speaking at a news conference, Felipe Perez Roque said Havana had presented a list of goods it would like to include in such an agreement to "create conditions to increase trade." Panamanian Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro did not comment specifically on the proposal, but said, "We have identified other areas of cooperation which we can explore in the future, like the topic of trade." Currently trade between the two countries amounts to only about US$50 million (€38 million). Panama exports mostly raw materials and manufactured goods to the island nation, while Cuba ships Panama tobacco, rum, cement and pharmaceuticals. Perez Roque did not say when the two countries might begin talks on an agreement. (AP, 2/3/07)

March 4: The main goal of Cuba's foreign trade sector this year is to more fully insert the communist island into the world and regional economy, the official Prensa Latina news agency reported, citing a Foreign Trade Ministry, or MINCEX, document. Havana conducted 44 percent of its total trade in 2006 with Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States, and it increased its mutual exchange with other nations and geographic areas. Other goals for 2007 are to strengthen Cuba's participation and role in the World Trade Organization, or WTO, and in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  The document also mentions Havana's interest in strengthening its bilateral trade links as well as fostering an increase in exports and in its efficiency and international competitiveness. MINCEX also has proposed achieving greater success in incorporating its various entities into the so-called Business Improvement program currently under way throughout the country. In like manner, the ministry will seek to consolidate the development of online commerce, accounting and financial activities by firms within the MINCEX system, as well as to fight any instances of corruption, illegality and lack of discipline. (EFE, 4/3/07)    

March 5: Cuban authorities have devised a restructuring plan for Antillana de Acero, the country’s main iron works company to make it profitable in 2007. The plan includes the elimination of 200 jobs, according to the weekly official newspaper “Trabajadores.” (EFE, 5/3/07)

March 5: During the Seventh Cuba-Venezuela Joint Meeting, both countries entered into an agreement for installation of 11 ethanol plants and development of sugar cane crops in Venezuela. Bilateral authorities initialed the pact to install the ethanol plants, organized a joint committee on the use of alternate energy sources and also okayed a number of new projects. Venezuela and Cuba estimated that cooperation in the area of new energy sources will help boost development and collective welfare. The closing ceremony of the meeting was presided over by Raúl Castro, Cuban acting President; Venezuelan Ambassador in Havana Alí Rodríguez Araque; Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Petroleum and state run oil firm Pdvsa CEO, Rafael Ramírez; and other senior Cuban and Venezuelan officials. (El Universal, 5/3/07)

March 6: The number of tourists visiting Cuba dropped 3.6 per cent last year because of high prices and not political uncertainty over Fidel Castro's illness, travel industry sources said. Canadian tourism, the source of 27 per cent of Cuba's arrivals, or about 600,000 people a year, dipped for the first time in years, according to Cuban government figures. "Cancun and the Dominican Republic offered better deals," a Canadian diplomat said. Tour operators said Cuba lost its competitive edge when it revalued its currency by 8 per cent in 2005. They said tourists get more quality for their money elsewhere. The Canadian Association of Tour Operators warned Cuba last year that it was losing out to other Caribbean destinations because of the lack of adequate service for tourists, theft of luggage at airports and hotels, and a failure to attend to complaints. The number of tourists visiting Cuba from Spain, Italy, Germany and France declined last year, while Britain became Cuba's second-largest market after Canada. The dengue outbreak, which led to the fumigation of Cuban cities to kill mosquitoes, led some tourists to stay away last autumn, particularly from Italy, a European tour operator said. (Reuters, 7/3/07)

March 7: Trade between Brazil and Cuba amounted to a record high of 374.85 million US dollars in 2006, the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade said. Last year, Brazil's exports to Cuba reached 343.25 million dollars, while imports from Cuba amounted to 31.59 million, generating a surplus of 311.66 million, the ministry said. Meanwhile, Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Alejandro Gonzalez Galiano said Brazil is Cuba's second biggest trading partner in the region after Venezuela. The Cuban vice minister was in Brazil to participate in an annual bilateral meeting designed to address issues of mutual interest, such as scientific cooperation and cultural exchanges. (Xinhua, 8/3/07)

March 8: Cuba increased its infrastructure for an optimum use of accompanying gas extracted from the country’s oil fields, Cuban TV reported. Installments from Cuban Company ENERGAS in Havana province’s northern strip have new technologies and methods, aimed at raising the delivery of that resource to generate electricity in the Caribbean nation. That entity works for a sustainable increase of production levels and the aim of this year´s plan is to add about 70 megawatts to the installed power plant and successively extend those capacities. (Prensa Latina, 8/3/07)

March 10: Habanos S.A announced that it is considering appealing the decision of the Court of Appeal of London in relation to its litigation with Master Cigars Direct Ltd regarding the distribution of Habanos cigars in Great Britain, and insisted that it will take legal action against the resale of its cigars in the European Union. (EFE, 12/3/07)

March 11: Argentina and Cuba signed a memorandum of understanding on technology transfer from the South American country to the island for the production of soy and grains. The agreement indicates that Cuba will contribute land currently under Ministry of Sugar administration, and Argentine businessmen will supply the know-how, seeds, machinery and money in exchange for a share of crop products. (AFP, 11/3/07)

March 11: Administrative mismanagement is the main cause of significant economic losses, product tampering, misappropriation of resources and other aberrations in Cuba’s businesses, acknowledged Vice-minister of Domestic Trade, Damar Maceo, in statements made to the official newspaper “Juventud Rebelde.” The newspaper has criticized the problem of product tampering and fraud that affect customers of state-run businesses, and has pointed to products like rum, beer, cigarettes, coffee, soaps and perfumes as the most commonly affected. (EFE, 11/3/07)

March 11: Cuba received 10 Iranian-made wagons to transport cement. Based on an over 9.9-million euros contract, Pars Wagon Co. in Arak, central Iran, is committed to build 100 freight train wagons for the Latin American nation within a year. In addition to this contract, Iran has also helped develop major projects in Cuba, including the building of a sewage pumping station and water treatment facilities. (Tehran Times, 11/3/07)

March 13: According to an article published in the Cuban weekly newspaper “Opciones”, at the end of 2006 there were 761 joint ventures registered with the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba, 68 less than the previous year, confirming a trend seen in recent years. The president of the Chamber, Raúl Becerra, attributes the decline to the “business reorganization” process that has taken place in Cuba. (EFECOM, 13/3/07)  

March 14: Cuba wants to develop trade and economic relations with Ukraine, Cuban Ambassador to Ukraine Julio Garmendia Pena told the press. "We are not quite satisfied with the volume of bilateral trade exchange, we consider that a wider perspective is being opened now," he said. He also said that there are good prospects in biotechnology and medicine supplies. Garmendia said that Cuba was interested in purchasing tires for heavy machines in Ukrainia and to increase cooperation in the railway sector. "And, of course, (Cuba is interested in) traditional supplies like, rum, cigars and coffee," the ambassador said. Garmendia said Cuba is also interested in supplies of sugar to Ukraine. (Ukrainian News, 14/3/07)

March 14: Trade between Cuba and China ballooned to $1.8 billion last year, double that of 2005, Beijing's ambassador to the island said. China's exports of buses, locomotives and farm equipment and supplies to Cuba in 2006 helped account for the sharp increase over the previous year, Zhao Rongxian said in a story posted on the website of the Cuban government's business weekly, Opciones. He did not provide specific numbers for Chinese-Cuban trade in 2005. A 2006 official Cuban report said trade between the two countries was about $775,000 during the 12-month period ending in October 2005. It was unclear whether the $1.8 billion figure corresponded to the same 12 months in 2006. ''We are both socialist countries, we have a lot in common and magnificent relations of cooperation in all areas,'' the ambassador said. Cuba sent nickel, sugar and medicine as well as biotechnological products to China. Chinese tourists also visited Cuba in record numbers and now average more than 10,000 a year, the ambassador said. (AP, 14/3/07)

March 14: Comparatively high prices, an unusually warm winter in Europe and the sale of a Spanish tour company to a US competitor are hurting Cuba's tourist trade this year after a 3.6 per cent decline in 2006, travel industry sources said. The communist country's economy relies heavily on tourism for foreign-currency earnings that totalled $2.4 billion (US) in 2006. The number of tourists arriving in Cuba dropped 7 per cent in January and 13 per cent in February, compared with this period last year, according to preliminary official figures. January through April are the high season in Cuba, so it will be difficult to meet this year's goal of 8 per cent growth, hotel executives said. Visitors fell to 2.2 million last year from 2.3 million in 2005, the Cuban government said. It was the first drop since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States hurt the travel industry worldwide in 2002. The number of visitors from Canada, Cuba's largest source of tourists, dipped 2 per cent in the first two months of this year, figures showed. But it was European tourism that dropped the most, with declines of 10 per cent to 20 per cent in the number of visitors from Italy, France and Germany, and a 45 per cent decline from Spain. (Reuters, 15/3/07)

March 15: With sights set on a lucrative world ethanol market, Cuba has plans to build eight new ethanol distilleries and export roughly 200 million liters of the biofuel by 2011, said Marianela Cordoves, a senior researcher at the Cuban Institute of Investigations into Sugarcane Derivatives, or ICIDCA. "We're thinking of expanding our output of ethanol (...) fivefold to 450 million liters of ethanol in 2011," Cordoves said at the F.O. Licht sugar and ethanol conference in Sao Paulo. "Some of that ethanol will be mixed into our (gasoline). But the rest - perhaps 200 million liters of fuel ethanol - we plan to export."  The country is already in talks with Asia, the European Union and even Canada to potentially supply their markets, she added. The plan could nevertheless hinge on how heavily the Cuban government supports the initiative - and how easily Cuba will find investors to build the new distilleries. Earlier this month, Cuba's ailing leader Fidel Castro criticized the idea of using food crops for fuels. (Dow Jones, 15/3/07)

March 17: Cuba’s Foreign Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez highlighted the country is taking measures for higher efficiency in trade management, including rational replacement of imports. At the closing of a meeting to discuss the work of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce (CCC) in 2006, the minister referred to the concentration of purchases and assessment of foreign trade among the actions being implemented. Executives from nearly 800 entities related to the activity, together with Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, and first Deputy Economy and Planning Minister Alfonso Casanova, were among the participants. (Prensa Latina, 17/3/07)

March 18: In the land of tobacco it has become very difficult to find cigarettes and cigars. According to an article in the weekly newspaper “Tribuna de La Habana,” smokers in the capital’s municipality of Playa complained about the shortage while the provincial retailer of cigarettes, cigars and matches admitted that the “main problem lies with the lack of transport vehicles.” (EFE, 18/3/07)

March 20: Challenges of horizontal and far-reaching perforation are among issues of the First Congress on Oil and Gas "Petrogas 2007", that started in Havana. Parallel to the Congress is the Second Earth Sciences Convention "Geociencias 2007", with forums on geology, geophysics and the mining industry, attended by 20 nations, among them, Canada, Venezuela, Chile, Spain, China, Italy and Mexico. (ACN, 20/3/07)

March 20: Cuba should begin its controversial drilling for oil in its Gulf of Mexico waters early next year, the country's Basic Industry Minister said. Minister Yadira Garcia said the government and Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF were negotiating with third parties to contract a drilling platform to sink various exploratory wells. "We are working together with Repsol on the platform that in 2008 should arrive to begin drilling during the first half of the year," Garcia said at the opening of a geology conference in Havana. Repsol drilled an exploratory deep-water well in 2004, finding signs of good quality oil but not in commercial quantities. India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. and Norway's Norsk Hydro partnered with Repsol in 2006 to explore its six blocks. Cuba's 43,250-square-mile (112,000-square-km) exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico was parceled into 59 blocks for foreign exploration in 1999. A total of 20 blocks have been taken by foreign firms to date, which also include Canadian firm Sherritt International, Malaysia's state-run Petroliam Nasional Berhad and Venezuela's state-run PDVSA. "For the next year we plan to sink test wells to prove the existence of oil. Then it will be two or three years to consolidate the find and build the needed structures to exploit the oil, depending on financing," Minister Garcia said. (Reuters, 20/3/07)

March 20: Businessmen from 17 countries have confirmed their attendance at the 7th International Fair on Construction, FECONS, to take place in Havana from March 27 to 31. According to the head of the Organizing Committee, Cuban Minister of Construction Rene Mesa Villafaña, Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and several countries from Europe and Asia are among the participants in the event. (ACN, 20/3/07)

March 21: Cuba has slowly but steadily restored in Old Havana some of the oldest -- and most gorgeous -- buildings in the Americas. The innovative plan has also funded social programs and housing reconstruction, making it a model for historic districts around the world, experts say. ''It's a self-financing, self-sustaining model,'' said Herman Van Hooff, a United Nations cultural official based in Havana. ``It's an integrated vision of restoration and providing services to the population. It has matured into a model with valuable concepts for other places.'' The unique part of Cuba's plan has been its strategy of restoring old hotels, restaurants and buildings to attract tourists and then using tourism revenue to fund more restoration, along with social programs and housing renovation, one of Cuba's most pressing problems. (AP, 21/3/07)

March 21: President of Venezuelan oil firm PDVSA Intevep, Hercillo Jose Rivas Siervo, expressed his satisfaction over the results of joint research with Cuba in the field of hydrocarbons. Rivas Siervo and a group of PDVSA Intervep experts are attending the 1st Cuban Congress on Oil and Gas, at the Havana Convention Center. In remarks to the press, Rivas said they have a collaboration agreement with oil firm Cuba Petroleo (CUPET) and Cuba's Oil Research Center for joint studies in the field. We are happy with the results of this cooperation, which will benefit both countries, he stressed. He added that both parties collaborate in technological development in the areas of exploration, production, refining and environmental protection. This year, we did specific research to improve recovery of heavy crude and applied biotechnology in improving oil quality, he said. (Prensa Latina, 21/3/07)

March 22: Cuba expects its economic growth to slip down a gear this year to around 10 percent but remain among the strongest in the region, a senior government official said. Cuba, which reported growth of 12.5 percent in 2006, is feeling a pinch in its vital tourist industry this year, due in part to a warm European winter and cheaper destinations elsewhere in the Caribbean. Cuban tour operators have played down any impact on tourism from Fidel Castro's health problems. "I think that this year the economy will have a growth rate of not less than 10 percent. But certainly, very strong growth," Osvaldo Martinez, the head of parliament's economic commission told the press. "To sustain growth of 12.5 percent is extremely difficult. Growth of 10 percent would very likely be once more the highest in Latin America, so there is nothing to worry about," he said, after a conference on the United Nations' World Water Day. Communist-run Cuba calculates its economic growth rate using a unique method that adds in free education, medical care and other social services provided by the state. Under that methodology, economic growth has revved up to three times its pace at the start of the decade when the country was pulling out of the slump triggered by the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. (Reuters 22/3/07)

March 22: The four countries boosting the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) Latin American Integration project agreed to include geology and mining as areas of cooperation. "We have identified actions to be proposed to our governments that could lead to future accords on mining resources," states a document issued at the Havana meeting. The text was signed by Yadira Garcia, minister of Basic Industry (Cuba); Jose G. Delance, minister of Mining and Metallurgy (Bolivia); Emilio Rapaccioli, minister of Energy and Mines (Nicaragua); and Ivan N. Hernandez, vice-minister of Mining (Venezuela). It envisions the creation of a group of experts from the ALBA member nations to support in the drafting of mining legislation, the establishing of a joint geological-mining data base, evaluation of mineral potential and carrying out market studies. The plan also involves the transformation of small mining operations, the setting-up of laboratories and a training program for miners, technicians and professionals. (ACN, Granma, 23/3/07)

March 22: Aymée Aguirre, vice-president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), said that “500,000 people do not have access to drinking water” on the island, while approximately 560,000 do not have access to sanitation services. (EFE, 22/3/07)

March 23: The Second Cuban Earth Sciences Convention, assembling several congresses on geophysics, oil and gas, mining industry and geology, concluded in Havana after analyzing over 700 papers in four days of sessions. More than 800 delegates from 20 countries, of them 228 foreigners, attended debates. Evelio Linares Cala, president of the Organizing Committee and the Cuban Society of Geology, termed the event very successful, not only for the amount of work presented, but also for its quality and the participation of Cuban and foreign experts. (Prensa Latina, 23/3/07)

March 25: The Cuban-Canadian Energas project is using the natural gas collected during the extraction of petroleum to generate 15 percent of the electricity consumed by Cuba, to provide energy for cooking to 1 million people and to reduce environmental pollution. Top project officials told reporters about the effort during a tour through Cuba 's northwest exploration and oil production zone after the end of the Geosciences Congress, which was devoted in large measure to revealing the communist island's energy prospects. Energas is a joint venture created in 1998 and operated in equal 33.3 percent shares by Canadian firm Sherrit, which is in charge of the financing and technology, and Cuba 's Union Electrica and Cuba Petroleo, the latter known as CUPET, which handle distribution to consumers and the actual gas production, respectively. The firm processes the gas extracted along with crude oil, removing the sulphur and the heavy fuels known as naphtha, and then it burns the now-clean and non-polluting gas in turbines to produce electricity. Energas has three gas production plants in Cuba 's so-called Northern Heavy Crude Strip, which runs for some 150 kilometers (93 miles) along the coast between Havana and the neighboring province of Matanzas , Energas deputy general manager Alberto Villalonga said. The project includes investment of some $200 million and the three plants generate some 400 megawatts of electricity, with production forecast to reach 525 megawatts by the end of 2008 during its final development phase, the Cuban engineer said. (EFE, 25/3/07)

March 26: The 19th Intergovernmental Cuba-China Commission for economic and commercial relations opened in Havana presided by Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuban minister of Government and Wei Jianguo, Chinese vice-minister of Commerce. Cuban Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration Minister Marta Lomas was also on hand for the opening session. This year’s agenda includes a review of trade and economic relations during 2006 and approval of strategies for the current year. While in Cuba, Vice Minister Wei Jianguo will also meet with government leaders and visit important projects that have collaboration from his country. (Granma, 27/3/07)

March 26: A week of rain in Cuba's eastern Holguin and Las Tunas provinces has all but paralyzed the sugar harvest there, local sources said. They said the weather also has slowed work in other areas, putting this year's production target further out of reach. "With the rain of the last five days there isn't a sugar cutting machine that can enter a plantation, and if you cut the cane by hand the yields will be in the dirt," retired farmer Carlos Pena said in a phone interview from Holguin. Cuban plantations lack adequate drainage and the harvest is 90 percent mechanized. Heavy rain prevents the usage of cutting machines and other equipment for days, and the mills close down. Unusually hot and wet weather from central Camaguey province eastward had led to below capacity milling and yields even before the latest rain, which continued, jeopardizing plans to boost production to 1.5 million to 1.6 million tonnes of raw sugar from 1.2 million tonnes last year. Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro said over the weekend it had rained 67 times since November in Las Tunas. "We have to do everything possible" to produce what the country needs, he said. (Reuters, 26/3/07)

March 26: Cuba is cranking up a new campaign for worker productivity, hoping new rules in April will impose discipline in a work culture where tardiness and absences have long been tolerated and tiny salaries are not always enough to get people to go to work. The official Communist Party Granma devoted its back page to the new regulations, which many workers complain are too strict -- especially for the small salaries they earn. State TV in recent days has aired messages about the need to increase worker discipline. The communist newspaper acknowledged that many workers face additional problems that will make it hard to comply with the new regulations, such as unreliable and crowded public transport and limited hours for child care. Although minimum government salaries were increased significantly in recent years, the current average monthly pay is still just around US$15. Now, Cuban workers "will have to change their life habits," party official Lina Pedraza told Granma newspaper. Cabinet Secretary Carlos Lage oversaw a meeting by senior Cuban officials last week examining the regulations taking effect on April 1, Granma newspaper said. Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon also attended, along with numerous government ministers. Contained in two resolutions, the package of new rules call for workers to arrive at the job on time, work their scheduled hours, and remain at work during their scheduled shifts. Workers are also prohibited from taking any personal payments from third parties for information or any other service. The regulations also call for government offices to stay open longer so Cubans can handle necessary government paperwork such as getting a driver's license or process housing documents without missing work. (AP, 26/3/07)

March 27: Cuba and China pledged to build on their rapidly growing trade, ending two days of meetings with a vow to do more in industries like oil, pharmaceuticals, nickel, medical services and tourism. Chinese Deputy Trade Minister Wei Jian Guo and Cuban Government Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said in Havana that they had set up a commission to work on joint investments in various sectors. "Both parties express their satisfaction with Cuba 's complete meeting of all financial obligations," a final declaration at the end of the talks said. According to the statement, the two countries renewed an agreement under which Cuba exports 400,000 tonnes of raw sugar annually to China and ratified Cuban plans to supply the Asian giant with nickel. China pledged to continue financing exports of energy, transportation, telecommunications and other equipment and to expand imports of Cuban goods and services. Cuba has two joint venture pharmaceutical companies in China and a third company providing low-cost eye surgery, with others planned. "Both parties agree to continue encouraging Chinese companies to participate in the petroleum sector of Cuba ," the statement said. Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec Corp. is in a joint venture to extract oil in Cuba 's western Pinar del Rio province, and other companies are considering offshore drilling in Cuba 's Gulf of Mexico waters. The statement said a joint venture hotel in Shanghai would be completed in time for the 2008 Olympics. (Reuters, 27/3/07)

March 27: The 7th International Construction Fair (FECONS) started in Havana with the participation of businessmen from seventeen countries around the world. Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and other nations from Europe and Asia are among the participants to the fair which will run until March 31. However, the number of exhibitors attending the event, one of the most important in the region, could increase during the next few days, members of the organizing committee explained to the press. The fair will cover an area of over 3,250 square meters at Cuba's largest exhibition site, EXPOCUBA. FECONS includes construction technology, formwork systems, woodwork, tools, projects and designs, information technology, protection accessories, equipment and elevators. (ACN, 27/3/07)

March 28: Cuba 's Havana Club rum brand sold a record 2.6 million cases last year, fueled by a 30 percent sales surge in the island's domestic market, company officials said. Enrique Noste, Havana Club's director of marketing for Cuba, said the company's rums now rank 34th out of the world's 100 top-selling spirits. He did not provide overall sales figures for 2005, but said the company topped the 2 million-case mark for the first time in 2004, while selling barely 1 million in 1998 and just 460,000 in 1994. Havana Club sells more rum in Cuba than anywhere else. Its sales on the island reached 960,000 cases in 2006 and will top a million this year, said Noste, who said the country's top-selling spirit has long been cheap varieties of white rum. "It's a sector that is very popular with the population," he said. "Undoubtedly, it's a type of drink that has been a big hit with the Cuban people and it's the base of growth for us. We have had growth in other sectors, but it's the strongest." Havana Club brands account for 40 percent of total sales in Cuba 's alcohol market, and Noste credited last year's surge in its popularity on "continued loyalty," as well as dips in domestic sales of other spirits. He also said government efforts to aggressively market and distribute the brand on the island and abroad helped. (AP, 28/3/07)

March 29: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said that the island will produce "the sugar we can" during the current sugar harvest. In an interview broadcast by official TV, Lage said that due to "real and objectively adverse" conditions, in the 2006-2007 sugar harvest "we will grind the sugar-cane we can, and produce the sugar we can". Lage explained that this harvest is taking place under "very difficult" conditions due to excessive rain and high temperatures. (EFECOM, 29/3/07)

March 29: Ailing Fidel Castro published an article in state media criticizing US environmental policies, emerging from months of silence on political matters during his long recuperation from intestinal surgery in an apparent move to reassert his voice on international issues. The article, signed the day before, was written in the same kind of apocalyptic style Mr. Castro traditionally has used when discussing the impact of US international policies on developing countries. In his article, Mr. Castro quotes extensively from a Washington-datelined story by The Associated Press reporting on the meeting between Mr. Bush and US auto makers and their comments about using corn to create ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels. During that meeting, Mr Castro writes, "the sinister idea of converting food into combustibles was definitively established as the economic line of foreign policy of the United States". The US and Brazil recently signed an agreement to develop biofuels, and their presidents are expected to hold further talks on the matter. The Cuban leader noted that Cuba has also experimented with extracting ethanol from sugarcane. But if rich countries decide to import huge amounts of traditional food crops such as corn from developing countries to help meet their energy needs, it could have disastrous consequences for the world's poor, Mr. Castro wrote. [Fidel Castro's Editorial in Granma] (Globe & Mail, AP, 28/3/07)

March 29: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage confirmed Fidel Castro’s position disregarding the possibility of using sugar cane lands for the production of ethanol, when local sugar production is experiencing the consequences of climate change. Local official TV interviewed Lage about sugar production. “It is irrational to believe that in this world where millions starve, and food and water are scarce, ethanol, alcohol, would be produced as energy for transportation”, Lage said. (AP, 30/3/07)

March 30: Cuba is going to develop three mining projects with foreign companies as of the second half of 2008, the Cuban press reported. The deposits Matahambre and Mantua, located in Cuba's extreme western parts, are in the stage of building road, communication and energy infrastructure, which will be used for the deposits' development. The projects are related to silver and copper production and to studies of deposits of lead, sulphur and zinc. Cuba's programme includes staff training and was elaborated after a comprehensive environmental impact study. The Matahambre deposit was discovered in 1998, as a result of the association between Canadian company  Holmer Gold Mines Limited and the Cuban Geominera SA. Cuba has stopped producing copper since July 2006, when the country closed La Mina Grande de El Cobre mine, located at some 20-km from Santiago de Cuba, which had produced copper since 1530. Previously Cuba closed the open-pit mines Matahambre and Jucaro, in the province Pinar del Rio. Cuba has the world largest nickel reserves and the second largest cobalt reserves. In 2006, Cuba mined 74,000 tonnes of nickel and is expected to mine 76,000 tonnes in 2007. (AFP, Latin American News Digest, 30/3/07)

March 30: Brazil has become a haven for developed and developing countries seeking technology for the use of ethanol as a fuel alternative to oil derivatives, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said. His remarks came in response to comments made by Fidel Castro in an article published by Cuban state daily Granma. Amorim stressed that he “respects” the Cuban leader and that he does not think his criticisms were aimed at Brazil, which produces ethanol from sugar cane, while the US uses less energy-efficient corn. “I think everyone is free to express their opinion. But I do not think that was meant against the Brazilian government or Brazil. Our opinion on ethanol is that ethanol’s success has been proved in practice,” he said. "President Fidel Castro is a person who is a respectable and historically important figure," Amorim said. "He has some ideas that are outdated," the minister added, saying that he had accompanied a Brazilian delegation to Havana 20 years ago "and at that time Castro was already saying alcohol would never work because sugar was a noble product." Ethanol is a form of alcohol. "Brazil is open to establish programs with Cuba that could benefit an African country. It could be very good". "I personally believe that even Cuba would very much benefit from the world ethanol market," Amorim said. (DPA, Qatar Times, AP, AFP, 30/3/07)

March 31: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva blamed barriers to trade in foodstuffs and ethanol for closing off markets and threatening food supplies in the developing world. "The subsidies provided under America's corn-based ethanol program have spurred an increase in US cereal prices of about 80 percent," Silva wrote in the Washington Post. "This hurts meat and soy processors worldwide and threatens global food security." But he denied recent claims by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that ramping up sugarcane production to produce ethanol in Brazil and the rest of Latin America could hurt the poor. "The spread of sugar cane, soy and other oleaginous crops for biofuels will ensure that needy farming families have the financial means to feed themselves," Silva wrote. (The Washington Post, 31/3/07)