Chronicle on Cuba - October 2007

Economy

October 1: Authorities on the island have launched a Tourist Observatory to monitor this sector, which has been affected by problems that threaten its position in the Caribbean. “Its mission will be to monitor tourist activities, industry developments and tendencies and to offer recommendations to improve competitiveness,” indicated the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR). According to official figures, tourists' inflows dropped 3.6 % in 2006, frustrating the industry’s plans of growing by 8 % that year. In 2007, the number of European visitors during high season (December - April) shrank, while the number of visitors from Canada, the island’s main market, grew “a mere 1.6 %” in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2006. (AFP, 1/10/07)

October 1: A Manitoba company offering "foreign surgery for the middle classes" is finding most of its patients come from the Maritimes and the United States, not its home province. Choices Self Directed Healthcare will arrange for Cuban medical facilities to carry out a variety of surgical procedures — from cosmetic to neurosurgery — for patients from Canada and the US. The "medical tourism" service can help Canadian patients avoid long waits for surgery, while for U.S. patients, the main attraction is reduced cost. Company founder Daren Jorgenson says most of the company's clients have come from the United States and the Maritime region in Canada, not Manitoba. Choices Self Directed Healthcare will arrange for Cuban medical facilities to carry out a variety of surgical procedures — from cosmetic to neurosurgery — for patients from Canada and the US. (CBC News, 1/10/07)

October 2: Vice President of the Cuban State Council Carlos Lage praised the high quality of Yutong buses being supplied by China to this Caribbean island. Lage said that at the end of 2007, some 1,142 buses are expected to arrive in Cuba from China to be used for urban transportation. Over 500 Yutong buses have landed in Cuba so far this year and more will continue to arrive in the country in the next three years as part of a bilateral accord, Lage said. In early 2006, Cuba negotiated with China the purchase of 8,000 vehicles, including the Yutong buses, which have been praised as "excellent" by Cuban leader Fidel Castro for their low fuel consumption and high quality. (Xinhua, 3/10/07)

October 2: Jamaica Minister of Industry, Commerce and Investment, Karl Samuda, said that some 5,000 tonnes of cement should arrive in the island from Cuba within the next two weeks, to ease the current shortage. A team consisting of representatives from the Ministry, the Airports Authority of Jamaica and the Port Authority of Jamaica visited Cuba on September 27 to finalize arrangements for the importation of some 40,000 tonnes of cement, which will be arriving into the island on a phased basis. Addressing journalists at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Mr. Samuda informed that the Port Authority of Jamaica is now in the process of finalizing arrangements to transport the cement. (Jamaica Information Service, 2/10/07)

October 3: Eight agricultural workers left their jobs because of delayed payment of their wages. The workers belong to the Basic Unit of Cooperative Production Luis Mercano, in Cinco Palmas, Granma. A worker from the cooperative said that days earlier five other workers from another unit left their jobs for the same reason. (Cubanet, 3/10/07)

October 3: Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung told Cuban Minister of Light Industry Jose Hernandez Bernandez that Vietnam was ready to co-operate with Cuba in areas in which the two country's offer complementary advantages, including education, health care and pharmaceuticals. The two countries should further promote co-operation not only at central but also grassroots levels, Hung said.  Hung also used the occasion of the meeting to announce that Vietnam would invest in building a factory to produce energy-saving light bulbs in Cuba. (Thai News Service, 4/10/07)  

October 4: Cuba today possesses an electric power generating capacity of 3,500 megawatts, which meets national demand, according to Vice President Carlos Lage. In three years, the country has attained an energy production potential of 1,600 megawatts after installing batteries of synchronized generating plants that run on diesel and fuel oil. The national strategy is to produce an additional 1,700 megawatts using generators that run on fuel oil, given the reasonable costs involved, Lage said. From now on, efforts should be focused on attaining more efficiency in production and in the country’s electric power system, as well as fuel conservation, along with effective control of resources, Lage stated. Likewise, he emphasized that the new Cuban method is in line with Fidel Castro’s instructions, given it is more decentralized and features lower consumption, along with utilizing associated gas from oil production. (ACN, 4/10/07)

October 5: Cuba contributes to the increase of agriculture production in several countries around the globe with the export of over 3 million plants of yam, manioc, malanga and papaya produced in-vitro. The National Research Institute on Tropical Fruit Culture, based in the Cuban central province of Villa Clara, provides international consultancy and promotes cooperation in the field of agriculture through the exchange of technology. The plants produced by the Cuban scientists have high germination capability and are very resistant to common diseases due to their excellent genetic quality. According to the director of the research facility, Sergio Rodriguez, some of the countries that benefit from the island's cooperation are Bolivia, Venezuela, Ghana and Panama. (ACN, 5/10/07)

October 7: A Colombian delegation of important enterprises and institutions traveled to Cuba aiming to widen bilateral cooperation in energy issues. The Colombian delegation will have contacts with Cuban representatives as part of the mutual cooperation on rational use of energy and use of renewable energy between the Cuban Basic Industry and the Colombian Energy and Mining Ministry of Colombia. The agenda of the visit will be until October 10, includes the study of the Cuban integral experience on saving and efficiency, replacement of devices, equipments and water bombing. Colombian representatives are also interested in the saving of energy in non-residential sectors, installation, operation and maintenance of diesel and fuel oil, and other aspects. The Colombian specialists are equally interested in the experience applied by the Caribbean island in the development of micro hydroelectric plants and their contribution to the economy. Also they will exchange knowledge on the combined cycle technology of gas in Cuba, the experiences of cogeneration in the sugar sector in the island and they will visit the University of Cienfuegos, in the center of the country. The Colombian delegation is comprised of executives of important research centers and energy distributing companies CODENSA, EMGESA, Public Companies of Medellín, Electrificadora of the Huila and Distribuidora of the Pacific. (ACN, 7/10/07)

October 7: A total of 455 people from Rio Cauto, in the Cuban eastern province of Granma, were evacuated due to floods caused by strong rains. Major Luis Escalona, head of the Civil Defense section in the territory, said that nearly 300 residents in low zones had to be sheltered in houses near-by, and more than 150 went to governmental installations. He said the areas with greater floods are close to the limits between Rio Cauto and Las Tunas province. The rain registered during the first days of October was equal to 65 percent of the traditional amount fallen in the territory for the whole month. (ACN, 7/10/07)

October 9: Bilateral commerce between Cuba and Russia has increased by sixty per cent so far in 2007 as compared to the same period in 2006, sources from Cuba's Foreign Trade Ministry and the Chamber of Commerce said. According to the president of Cuba-Russia Business Committee, Alejandro Mustelier, "within a couple of years we will be able to assess concrete commercial gains within both countries." The organization has 66 import/ export enterprises. Current trade involves sectors such as transportation (mainly railroad transportation, aviation and automobiles), telecommunications, biotechnology (export of Cuban products including a vaccine to fight Hepatitis type B), and tourism (Russia is focused mainly on health and eco-tourism). Other Cuban products to add to the list are crude sugar, citrus fruits, cigars, rum, coffee, honey, liquors, and toiletries. For its part, Russia additionally trades in fertilizers, pneumatics, footwear and work clothes with Cuba. A substantial increase in trade is yet expected by the end of 2007. (Radio Habana Cuba, 9/10/07)

October 9: Low-income Cuban families now have a greater chance of having a home of their own thanks to a prize-winning construction method that uses strong, locally-produced alternative materials. "The hurricane destroyed my house, but the one I have now is better and safer, and was built in around three months," Marilú Figueredo, a mother of three who lives in Manicaragua, a rural district in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, told the press. She is one of the beneficiaries of a plan for repairing and building homes that were damaged or destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Dennis, which caused damages to 120,000 homes in Cuba, 15,000 of which were completely levelled. "I think that if another hurricane comes, I won't have any problems," she said optimistically. The same confidence is shared by pensioners María Trujillo and Felicia Armenteros, and by Iluminada Rivero, who is divorced. The three women live in Quemado de Guines, a Villa Clara town that has been hit hard by hurricanes over the years. The women’s new homes have replaced the precarious housing units they were living in two years ago. The new buildings are made of environmentally-friendly materials manufactured in their own towns at a low-cost, known as ecomaterials because they are both ecological and economic. The concept covers a broad range of building materials, whose common denominator is the use of local raw materials or the recycling of waste products like sugar cane bagasse. (IPS, 9/10/07)

October 12: Almost 11,000 people have been evacuated in the Cuban eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Las Tunas, due to the continuous rains affecting the zone for nearly two weeks. Local authorities have provided shelters for nearly 4,962 residents in Santiago de Cuba, 4,000 in Guantanamo, and 1,237 in Las Tunas. In addition, floods caused by the overflowing of rivers and dams have affected communication between some localities. Over 450 houses have partially or totally collapsed in Santiago de Cuba. In this territory, Cuba’s main coffee producer, an equivalent to 10,000 cans of coffee beans have dropped to the ground and 70,000 already ripe may be lost. Almost 3,400 intern students and 14,000 residents in the municipality of Niceto Perez are isolated due to the overflow of the Guantanamo river. (Juventud Rebelde, EER,Prensa Latina,  AFP, 12/10/07)

October 12: More than 5,000 patients from 38 countries have received medical treatment in Cuba since September this year, at international clinics led by the government-run Cubanacan Tourism and Health Company. In statements to the press, Calixto Noche, commercial manager of the entity said that in addition to the services provided to tourists, another 1,700 people, including foreign residents in Cuba and members of diplomatic missions have been treated in the clinics located throughout the country. Calixto Noche said Cuba has contracts with nearly 40 countries, mostly in the American continent, except for the US and including the Caribbean and Europe. He mentioned Canada, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Chile, Bahamas, Jamaica, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have relations with the company Cubanacan Tourism and Health, which gave medical treatment to nearly 9,000 foreigners in 2006 in the specialties of orthopaedics, general surgery, aesthetics, cardiology and paediatrics, noted the expert. (ACN, 12/10/07)

October 13: Backed by aid from Venezuela and Cuba, the International Airport Development Company (IADC) will begin construction on a new US$179 million airport in St. Vincent. Venezuela and Cuba have already pledged nearly 50 per cent of the funds needed to construct the airport at Argyle, an area on the Windward end of the island. Taiwan has also committed a US$15 million grant and a US$10 million soft loan for the project. (Jamaica Gleaner, 13/10/07)

October 14: Cienfuegos province is going to become a real center of industrial development in Cuba and all of Latin America, affirmed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, as he “pre-inaugurated” the Camilo Cienfuegos oil refinery in the city of Cienfuegos. At a ceremony that also included the presence of Political Bureau members Carlos Lage and Yadira García, as well as Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, and Roberto Morales Ojeda, first secretary of the Party in Cienfuegos, and other leaders and guests, Chávez congratulated the workers of the Cuban-Venezuelan joint enterprise PDVSA-CUPET on the efficiency they have achieved during this initial stage. The refinery is expected to begin operating by the end of this year with a processing capacity of 65,000 barrels of crude daily. The Venezuelan president noted that the facility is a concrete example of the fulfillment of agreements signed by various countries as part of the ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas). Chávez said that with the start of the refinery’s operations in December, the cornerstone will have been set for what will be a large petrochemical complex. At that time, he said, construction will begin on a re-gasifying plant using gas from Venezuelan sources. Another line of production mentioned by Chávez as part of this industrial center is the future construction of a fertilizer plant, which would not only supply Cuban agriculture with that product, but also would provide products for export to the Caribbean region. (Granma International, 15/10/07)

October 14: Some 300,000 bushels of ripe coffee beans in danger of getting lost, damage to houses, roads and the electricity, telephone lines, and water services are the preliminary results of the heavy and persistent rains that have been besieging Santiago de Cuba province for nearly two weeks now and which meteorologists have said will continue for some days yet. Some 4,000 residents of areas near water dams and likely to flood have been evacuated, and brigades of electrical workers are trying hard to cope with the more than 200 breakdowns reported so far. But coffee growers have been the ones more hardest hit, with over 100,000 bushels of the beans on the ground, another 300,000 in danger of getting lost, and hundreds of workers being mobilized to try to salvage the crop, which is entering its ripening peak. The situation got worse when some 9,000 students who regularly contribute to the harvest at this time of the year were sent back home due to the weather. In the municipality of Santiago de Cuba more than 500 houses have suffered partial or total collapse, and a major breakdown in a main is affecting the water supply to the city. The Parada dam, with its more than 30 million cubic meter capacity, is a potential danger to some 400 houses and numerous nearby industries, including the “Antonio Maceo” Thermo-Electric Power Plant. In the provinces of Guantanamo and Granma, 4,000 and 1,500 people, respectively, have been evacuated. The nearby province of Las Tunas, meanwhile, has had 26 consecutive days of rain, a record for the region. Some 1,000 people have been evacuated and numerous houses damaged.The cattle-rich province of Camaguey, more to the center of the island, has also had a record of rainfall; more than 1,000 people have been so far evacuated and over 14,000 head of cattle have been taken to higher grounds. Nearly 500 houses have also suffered damage as a consequence of the rains. (Periódico 26, 14/10/07)

October 15: Cuba needs an investment of nearly $934 million for repairing the 11,400 kilometers (7,000 miles) of highways that make up the island's main network, an official publication said. The weekly Trabajadores said that an investment of $333.8 million would be needed to restore existing highways and another $600 million to finish the National Freeway, planned to cross the island from one end to the other. The problems of foreign financing, the high price of oil derivatives, crumbling machinery and technological backwardness are some of the main problems facing the country, the highways chief of the Transport Ministry, Homero Crabb, told the weekly publication. "We can't buy equipment, spare parts or fuel in the quantities required," Crabb said, adding that Cuba is behind in the use of technology and resources to optimize works of preservation and maintenance, while machinery and asphalt plants are in a very bad state. Construction of the National Freeway was interrupted in 1989 at the beginning of the so-called "special period" brought on by the collapse of the socialist block and the end of generous subsidies from Moscow. (EFE, 15/10/07)  

October 15: Cuba and Venezuela signed a raft of economic accords aimed at furthering cooperation, including plans for nickel and oil development and a billion-dollar petrochemical complex in Cuba. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and acting Cuban President Raul Castro presided over the signings, the latest in a series of such events. The two countries have already formed 19 joint ventures in many different sectors, especially energy. The new plans signed call for building a plant to turn liquefied natural gas back into gas and study the potential to build a fertilizer plant and other petrochemical plants around the refinery. The countries also plan to upgrade Cuban low-quality crude oil, and explore for oil in four offshore blocks in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters and two blocks along the north coast in western Cuba. A joint venture to mine nickel waste and turn it into ferro-nickel and letters of intent for the construction and fishing industries were also signed. Chavez signed a presidential decree authorizing formation of a joint venture to build and administer an underwater fiber optics cable between the two countries meant to bypass the US embargo. [Documentos rubricados entre Cuba y Venezuela] (Reuters, 15/10/07)

October 15: The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, suggested to members of the Cuban Executive to structure “aggressive” plans of agricultural production which allow to increase the possibilities of food self- supply in both nations. “We should give maximum priority and concentrate the best researchers for this, the best scientists, look for the best lands, to accelerate the building or acquisition of materials, tools, machinery, seeds, fertilizers; the organization of producers into associations, state units, joint units, in different production ways,” he added. He indicated that the idea is to break with the risky dependence that both economies have on this matter. Those proposals were issued during the signing of new agreements for a bigger economic integration between Venezuela and Cuba, under the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), in Havana. (ABN, 15/10/07)

October 17: Participants at the meetings of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Cuban Commission on questions of commercial and economic as well as scientific and technical cooperation, visited the ANTONOV Aeronautical Scientific/Technical Complex. This visit demonstrates the increased interest and aspiration of both parties for cooperation in the sphere of aviation. Cuba operates about 40 multipurpose AN-2 biplanes, 10 transport AN-26s and 2 regional passenger AN-24s. Deliveries of the aircraft to Cuba were started 35 years ago. Specialists of ANTONOV ASTC communicate with their operators, providing engineering services, in particular, on extension of service-lives of these airplanes. However, because of necessity to renew the existing fleet of the airplanes, the Cuban airlines expressed their interest in the new and future ANTONOV programmes. (RIA, 17/10/07)

October 17: At least 8,300 homes were damaged and more than 31,000 people evacuated in the provinces of Holguin, Las Tunas, Granma, Guantanamo, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba due to the heavy rains that battered the island in the past two weeks, Cuban media reported, citing preliminary damage estimates. Cuban authorities are still assessing the destruction caused by the torrential downpours that flooded the country's eastern provinces and damaged thousands of hectares of crops, the official daily Granma said. The official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party said that water service has been restored in Cuba 's second city, Santiago de Cuba, where some 250,000 people had been cut off. Cuban authorities said that dozens of homes collapsed in the eastern part of the country, though thus far no deaths have been reported. The heavy rains have also damaged thousands of hectares of coffee, tuber, vegetable and plantain crops. (EFE, 17/10/07)

October 17: An estimated 150 million migrants, most of them living in rich Western Europe and North America, regularly send money to their mostly poor relatives in developing economies, according to the first study of its kind. About 10 percent of the world's population depends in some way on such remittances. Remittances have been growing at a 10 percent annual rate, according to the report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a Rome-based UN agency. IFAD commissioned the IDB, a multilateral lender for Latin America, and the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank, to help gather the numbers. The money flow has become "the world's most effective poverty alleviation program," said Donald Terry, a top official of the IDB.  The study also took a stab at estimating remittances to places where the numbers are difficult to tabulate, like Cuba, Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Somalia. The report estimated that Cubans received $983 million in 2006 -- in line with Cuban government data over the past several years. Terry said he was "fairly confident" of the number's accuracy. Some Cuba-watchers have disputed Havana 's figures and put remittances at $400 million to $500 million per year. (The Miami Herald, 18/10/07)  

October 18: More than 1,200 companies from 50 countries have confirmed their participation in the 25th International Havana Trade Fair (FIHAV 2007), to take place from November 5 to 10. According to the President of the Organizing Committee, Abraham Maciques, the renting of areas for exhibition by foreign companies has increased by 13 percent over last year. The trade fair, which will be attended by representatives from the five continents, will be held in Cuba's largest exhibition center -ExpoCuba- located 25 kilometers southeast of Havana. (ACN, 18/10/07)

October 18: The Cuban government announced that it will set more accurate and modest targets for housing construction, after confirming that the program will fall short for the second consecutive year due to poor planning and a shortage of workers, according to an article in the official daily Granma. During a meeting of provincial authorities, Vice-president Carlos Lage instructed not to set a fixed number every year, but rather to focus priority on marginal areas and people in most need. In September, only half of the 70,300 units announced for 2007 had been finished, according to the president of the National Institute of Housing, Víctor Ramírez. Of 213,500 repairs, barely 56 per cent had been done. (La Jornada, 18/10/07)

October 18: Malaysia said it plans to develop a “halal” (permissible) meningitis vaccine jointly with Cuba within the next two years. The 3.6 million ringgit (one million dollar) vaccine is aimed at the thousands of Muslims who are infected with the disease during the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. At present, most meningitis vaccines are produced from pig products, which are considered haram, or forbidden, by Muslims. The halal vaccine is a joint project between Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and the Finlay Institute in Cuba. Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said Malaysia would provide two million ringgit for the project while Cuba would fund the remaining 1.6 million. Mustapa said 12 USM specialists and 30 Cuban experts would develop the vaccine from halal extracts of animals slaughtered according to Islamic tenets. (Bernama, 18/10/07)

October 18: Belizean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Lisa Shoman arrived to Havana at the invitation of Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. The visit is Shoman’s first to the island and is aimed at reviewing bilateral ties, in particular, the state of cooperation; as well as strengthening the bonds of friendship between the two nations. Lisa Shoman heads her country’s delegation to the 10th Session of the Cuba-Belize Intergovernmental Commission to be held October 18 and 19 to sign new cooperation agreements in the framework of the Basic Agreement for Technical and Economical Cooperation. (Periódico 26, 18/10/07)

October 19: Cuba and Equatorial Guinea signed new agreements to expand bilateral relations in sectors such as healthcare, renewable energy, and special education. Technical protection of a laboratory to control and prevent cholera, technical assistance in the start-up of a psychiatric hospital and a center to treat children in the African country were committed to by Cuba. An accord signed between Cuba's Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) and Equatorial Guinea's Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, pledged technical assistance from the Caribbean island to the Guinean Radio and Television Institute. (Radio Habana Cuba, 21/10/07)

October 19: The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, signed a decree establishing the Azeri part of the Azeri-Cuban Intergovernmental Commission for Cooperation, under the Minister of Economic Development Heydar Babayev. The other Azeri members are the deputy ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Industries and Energy, Culture and Tourism, Education, Health and of Youth and Sports, and the Councillor of Azerbaijan's permanent representative at the UN. The commission, established under the bilateral intergovernmental cooperation treaty signed in Havana in September 2006, is commanded to streamline cooperation and expand relations between Azerbaijan and Cuba. (Azer Press, 19/10/07)  

October 19: State-owned Dubai Ports World, which relinquished control over six US ports in a political firestorm last year, is studying plans to build a container terminal in the Cuban port of Mariel, business sources said. DP World agreed in early October to do a feasibility study to build a $250 million container terminal in Mariel that would start operating in 2012, a Havana port source told the press. "A deal is in the works. It is moving forward and they have signed various agreements," another person familiar with the plan said. In Dubai, DP World spokeswoman Sarah Lockie said she could not immediately comment. (Reuters, 19/10/07)

October 19: A heavy downpour in the already rain-battered eastern Cuban city of Camagüey caused a river to burst its banks and local flooding, state-run media reported. A total of 122 millimeters (4.8 inches) of rain fell in Camagüey, located 570 kilometers (350 miles) east of Havana, in just an hour and 45 minutes on soil that was already saturated by days of showers. The combination of excess water on the ground and the overflowing of the Jatibonico River resulted in flooding that prompted the mobilization of Civil Defense teams, according to officials cited by the Prensa Latina news agency. Heavy rainfall in Camaguey left at least 8,300 homes damaged, forced more than 31,000 people to evacuate, flooded sugarcane, coffee and vegetable crops and interrupted water, telephone and electricity service. The heavy rains in the province also caused damage to roads and cracks in six bridges. Ciego de Avila province reported that the amount of rain registered since May - 1,554 millimeters (61 inches) - is the highest in the past 10 years and 31 percent higher than the historical average for an entire year. (EFE, 19/10/07)  

October 20: China imported 691,000 tons of sugar in the first seven months of this year, a growth of 5.3 percent year-on-year, according to General Administration of Customs. Of the total imports, 660,000 tons, or 95.5 percent, came from Cuba, Thailand, Guatemala, the Republic of Korea, Brazil and Australia. Imports from Cuba, Brazil and Australia went down, while those from Thailand and Guatemala went up. (Xinhua, 20/10/07)

October 23: Efforts to restore degraded island ecosystems are already producing results in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, where scientists from different disciplines have been fomenting environmentally-friendly practices since the beginning of this decade. One of the restoration projects is in Cayo Conuco, a tiny island located seven kilometres across the water from Caibarién, a town in the north of Villa Clara. Cayo Conuco, which is joined to the mainland by a stone causeway, was recently covered only by thin, dry pasture. Now, the green leaves of native plant species have resumed their rightful place. Among the causes of ecosystem degradation that are common to Cuba and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, Jesús Matos Mederos, the head of the Cuban Group for Ecological Restoration (GCRE) and an expert with the National Flora and Fauna Protection Division, mentioned soil degradation, deterioration of environmental conditions, pollution of rivers and seas, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Other negative influences on the environment, according to experts at the First Iberian-Latin-American Symposium on Ecological Restoration, held in Santa Clara, the capital of Villa Clara province, in 2004, are desertification, irrational exploitation of resources, the spread of invasive species, forest fires, monoculture, expansion of agriculture and stock-raising, and tourism activities in fragile or non-sustainable areas. (IPS, 23/10/07)

October 23: Turkish businesspeople from 22 companies departed from Istanbul to Havana to take part in the 25th Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV). Turkey will have a pavilion of its own, substantially increasing its presence compared to the previous year, when only five companies took part in the fair. Organizer of the mission, Omer Giray, president of the executive council of Databank, told Prensa Latina he is satisfied with the response from Turkish companies to this call. Before departing, Giray highlighted the good health of commercial ties between Turkey and Cuba and recalled the credit for 12 million dollars extended in 2006 was completely spent and all the products arrived in the island without difficulty. (Prensa Latina, 23/10/07)

October 26: The Ministry of Domestic Trade (MINCIN) reported 270 million Cuban pesos (about $11.6 million dollars) during 2006 by way of “losses and deficits,” reported the official press. The minister of the sector, Marino Muriño Jorge, said that the MINCIN “is looking into the causes that provoked these anomalies”. He also added that up to September, the number of companies reporting losses was reduced to 26, as opposed to the hundred in that situation during the same period in 2006. (EFE, 26/10/07)

October 28: Cuba will produce about 4 million tons of oil and natural gas this year, a top government official said in comments published by state media. It would be a slight increase over 2006. Touring the Nico Lopez refinery on the east side of Havana Bay, Vice President Carlos Lage said Cuba "is in position to meet its plan of almost 4 million tons of oil and natural gas this year." The Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde quoted Lage as saying that modernization of the Nico Lopez facility has helped save nearly 1 million liters (26,000 gallons) of gasoline in just two months. The paper reported that upgrading the refinery took nine months and cost more than US$4.3 million (€3 million). Cuba has been producing 85,000 barrels of petroleum and 120 million cubic feet (3.4 million cubic meters) of natural gas a day, a dramatic increase from a decade ago but still not enough to meet its needs. Lage said Cuba is forced to purchase some oil on the open market, and is feeling the worldwide pinch of spiking prices. "Even though we maintain the contract with Venezuela which gives us favorable commercial conditions, the country has to buy a certain amount of fuel on the international market," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "That's why saving energy is a prime responsibility at the moment." (AP, 28/10/07)

October 30: Tropical Storm Noel weakened as it moved across northeastern Cuba. Torrential rains drenched eastern Cuba, where double the average rainfall in October had reservoirs already filled to the brim and authorities worried about flooding. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages. The storm knocked down trees on the coast of neighboring Camaguey, a beach resort hotel receptionist said, as it swept along Cuba's north coast. Forecasters warned of storm surges. Cuba evacuated about 10,000 people from inland areas threatened by floods and mudslides or rivers that could burst their banks. The evacuees included 3,000 students picking coffee in the hills of Santiago province. Tourists at coastal resorts were not affected. (Reuters, 30/10/07)

October 31: The enlargement and modernization works at the Camilo Cienfuegos oil refinery go as planned, so that it can start up operations in December, an executive of the Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture said. Julio Sanchez, coordinator of the Rehabilitation Project of the refinery, told reporters that the installation of an aluminium geodesic dome in one of the plant's five oil storage tanks would be completed soon. The Camilo Cienfuegos refinery will process 65,000 barrels a day during the first stage, and 108,000 barrels during the second stage. (Prensa Latina, 31/10/07)