Chronicle on Cuba - May 2008

Economy

May 1: Cuba announced a major shake-up of its troubled farm sector on May Day, shifting control of the island's farms from officials at the Agriculture Ministry to more than 150 local councils. The move is part of an effort to increase food production and reduce Cuba's dependance on imports. The Communist Party newspaper Granma said 169 new agricultural coordinating councils -- made up of local officials -- would take over control of the farm sector, and the government is considering slashing 104 state-run agricultural departments. Granma said relying on local farm leaders to make more decisions will ''stimulate agricultural production, perfect its sale and increase the availability of food and, in this way, substitute imports.'' The government hopes granting small farmers and local leaders more autonomy could revitalize the sector. Officials estimate that 51 percent of arable land in Cuba was underused or fallow because of government mismanagement. (AP, 1/5/08)

May 1: Three years of dialogue between Barbados’ company Mulberry Patch Destiny Inc. and the Cuban organisation Proyecto de Sericultura may soon pay off. Dawnay St John, CEO of Mulberry Patch Destiny Inc. and Dr Jose Garcia Roque, ambassador for the Republic of Cuba, paid a courtesy call on Minister of Agriculture Haynesley Benn to bring him up to date on plans for Cuba-Barbados trans-boundary cooperation in sericulture, the art of silk. St John will soon be flying to Cuba for a familiarisation tour of the Cuban sericulture industry there, now in its 38th year. St John said she planned to take advantage of learning from that country's advanced technology in order to upgrade work on the proposed establishment of an interpretation centre on sericulture in Barbados. (The Nation Newspaper, 1/5/08)

May 5: Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding anticipated that there will be a greater need for Jamaica and Cuba to collaborate rather than compete with each other on matters relating to the tourist industry. Mr Golding was speaking following extensive talks earlier with Cuba's President Raul Castro, during his official three day visit to Havana. Mr Golding said that during those talks the question of tourism was raised because it was felt that Cuba has so much to offer in terms of expansion of tourism. He said Jamaica has been a dominate player in this section of the Caribbean as well as in the US market and that Jamaica has some expertise which it believes it can also offer Cuba in terms of promoting and managing the tourism product. Mr Golding said one of the areas to be explored is the possibility of multiple destination marketing where visitors can purchase a package through which they could spend some time in Jamaica and some time in Cuba. However details of this and other arrangements relating to the tourism industry will be worked out between today and tomorrow when the Minister of Tourism, Ed Bartlett, one of five Minister accompanying Prime Minister Golding on the Cuban visit, meets with his counterpart for one on one discussions. (OPM, 5/5/08)

May 6: Cuba has begun soy bean production on 5,000 hectares of land formally dedicated to sugar cane, official radio reported, the first such effort to grow soy on the Caribbean island. Radio Progreso, reporting on a meeting of sugar ministry officials in western Matanzas province, said Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro "talked about the singular project in Cuba to gow soy on 5,000 hectares in Matanzas," without providing further details. Cuba has studied the possibility of growing soy for a number of years with advice from Canadian and South American experts. A number of foreign companies have proposed joint ventures to grow soy, to no avail. If successful, the Matanzas project would be extended to other provinces, a local agriculture expert said, asking not to be identified. (Reuters, 6/5/08)

May 6: Agricultural officials from Cuba are expected to arrive in Jamaica before the end of June to help the Government in its drive to increase the production of cassava, potato and other tubers. That is one aspect of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed yesterday by Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and his Cuban counterpart in Havana. Under the agreement, Jamaica will provide Cuba with assistance in the area of research and development. Cuba will help Jamaica in several areas, including soil preparation, veterinary services and fruit tree production. According to Tufton, both countries should benefit from the agreement. "We anticipate that the agreement will manifest itself with Cuban experts coming to Jamaica to work with their local counterparts, including the Rural Agricultural Development Authority," Tufton said. (Jamaica Gleaner, 7/5/08)

May 7: Jamaica and Cuba have agreed to collaborate in the areas of agriculture, health, tourism, water resources and housing, Prime Minister Bruce Golding told reporters in Kingston.  The prime minister, who was speaking at a press conference at the Norman Manley International Airport, shortly after he and members of his team arrived from an official visit to Cuba, said frameworks in the respective areas will require follow-up work on both sides to hammer out the finer details. (Jamaica Gleaner, 7/5/08)

May 8: Some 200 Cuban and Mexican business executives held a two-day meeting in Havana hoping to boost trade and business opportunities between the two countries. Raul Becerra, president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, highlighted that in the first quarter of 2008 commercial exchange between Cuba and Mexico increased by 70 percent compared to the same period in 2006. Representatives from a wide gamut of Mexican business sectors, which included food, steel, energy, tourism and informatics industries, were present at the meeting. Luz Maria de la Mora, in charge of the Economic Relations and Cooperation office of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, said her country imported rum, tobacco, chemical goods, medicines and copper products, among others, from Cuba for a total of $16 US million in 2007, while Mexico sold Cuba $190 million in farm and industrial products. The National Bank of Foreign Commerce of Mexico (Bancomext) opened a credit line of $20US million to the National Bank of Cuba, in an effort to boost trade between the two countries. (RHC-Granma, AFP, 8/5/08)

May 8: Cuba is setting aside any ideological objections and is embracing golf, the most capitalist of sports. Investors from Canada and Europe have proposed building gated communities with luxury hotels, villas and condos surrounding 18 and 36-hole golf courses near beach resorts across the Caribbean island. Some of the projects, which include one by top British architect Norman Foster's firm, have been on the drawing board for years and their backers are hoping Cuba's new president, Raul Castro, will give them the green light to revive golf. "Old-school objections to golf on ideological grounds have fallen away," said Mark Entwistle, a former Canadian ambassador to Havana who now consults to foreign companies planning to do business in the island. Cuba's new interest in golf arises in response to the stagnation of its $2 billion-a-year tourist trade, which saw the number of visitors dwindle in 2006 and 2007. Cuba has no choice but to build new golf courses if it wants to compete with other Caribbean resorts in Mexico, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, a smaller country that draws more tourists than Cuba and has 22 golf courses. But no developer builds a golf course if there is no real estate involved, and that has been a hurdle for proposals made by foreign entrepreneurs, who would need leases of 50 to 75 years before they could commit to a project. Leisure Canada has signed a licensing agreement with Britain's Professional Golf Association to promote world class golf and tournaments in Cuba, the company's website says. (Reuters, 8/5/08)

May 9: Cuba's Central Bank is urging the government to gradually unify the island's two parallel currencies and cut back on "indiscriminate" subsidies, according to an internal report obtained by the press. The document, which was distributed to Communist Party members, says a single, strong peso would boost productivity and morale in Cuba. The island now has two separate currencies: one for locals, and one designed principally for foreigners. Party members were instructed to discuss the bank's recommendations between April and June. One of those members provided a copy of the document to a local journalist. The report, a rare glimpse into the back rooms of one of the world's last communist economies, says Cuba would be more efficient if its currencies were streamlined. But it warns that the transition should be gradual, with incremental revaluations to narrow the gap between the two pesos over time. Rumors have circulated that Raul Castro, who replaced his brother as president in February, is planning to strengthen the ordinary peso, which is now worth about 21 per US dollar. The convertible peso is currently worth slightly more than a dollar. (IPS, AP, 9,10/5/08)

May 12: Members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) began a technical meeting on their environmental problems in Nicaragua. Roberto Araquistain, vice minister of the Environment of Nicaragua (MARENA), told the press that the delegations attending the meeting will focus on three types of projects: forestry and water, urban and rural clean up, and the integral management of watersheds. Attending the meeting are delegations from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and as guests, from Panama and the Dominican Republic. (Granma, 13/5/08)

May 12: Toronto-based Sherritt (TSX: S) expects to begin procurement this quarter of the major components of a 150MW expansion at the Boca de Jaruco thermo plant in Cuba, company CFO Dean Chambers said. Pricing for most of the major components has been confirmed and should be finalized over the next several weeks. The Cdn$247mn (US$246mn) combined cycle expansion is due to come online by late 2010 or early 2011. The expansion will increase Sherritt's capacity in Cuba to 526MW. The Canadian firm operates in the Caribbean country's power sector through JV Energas, which includes Cuba's respective oil and power companies Cupet and UNE. Energas also operates plants Varadero and Puerto Escondido, which along with Boca de Jaruco currently total 376MW. (Business News Americas, 12/5/08)

May 13: The Cuban sugar mill Carlos Balino, the only producer of ecological sugar in Cuba, made 3,500 tons of that product, fulfilling its commitment for the 2008 sugar harvest in 32 days of work. The sugar mill, located in the central region of Cuba, completed this production volume after processing 42,000 tons of sugar cane, cultivated with natural techniques in a soil where chemicals have not been applied for more than five years. This sugar mill plans to increase the production of ecological sugar to 15,000 tons in 2012. (ACN, 13/5/08)

May 13: The application of agro-ecological techniques and the salvaging of traditional farming methods have revolutionized food production in rural areas along the southern edge of the Cuban capital. Cuba is currently facing the urgent challenge of boosting agricultural productivity because of the rise in global food prices. A number of farms in the outlying Havana district of Batabano that are taking part in the Programme for Local Agrarian Innovation (PIAL) have seen improvements in their harvests and livestock. The key seems to lie in efforts to capitalise on natural conditions in the area and in the openness to innovative ideas, particularly with regard to crop diversification. "We used to have big problems with animal feed," 39-year-old Jorge Bársena told the press. "But today we don't need to buy hay, and we supply our own meat and eggs," said the farmer, who owns the La Otmara farm and is president of the 9 de Abril small farmers cooperative. Bársena joined PIAL over four years ago as part of a seed improvement project involving small farmers that was developed by the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA). He has since experimented with the cultivation of soybeans, wheat, beans, sorghum, millet, barley and rice. (IPS, 13/5/08)

May 13: Cuban agricultural authorities acknowledged the need for a major overhaul of food production on the island, the state press reported. Alcides Lopez, viceminister for agriculture, told a National Assembly commission studying the issue that inefficiency and other problems plaguing Cuban agriculture required urgent measures. "We're talking about organizing production," he said. Cuba's new government has initiated a series of reforms aimed at increasing food production, including granting local agricultural authorities greater power to decide what and how much to raise. Members of the National Assembly commission pressed officials for details on the extent of the autonomy of municipal delegations taking over the decision-making process, the daily Juventud Rebelbe reported. Agricultural official Maria del Carmen Perez said all transactions would be handled at the local level at one single location rather than at various departments. Officials also spoke in favor of greater financial incentives for food producers. (Sun Sentinel, 14/5/08)

May 13: Cuba will not be not considering opening its agricultural industry to foreign investment anytime soon, an official with Raúl Castro’s government revealed. The revival of the agricultural industry is a key piece in Castro’s plan to reduce food imports and give the national economy a much-needed boost. But according to Orlando Lugo, president of the National Association of Small Farmers and member of the State’s Council, it will be achieved without resorting to foreign capital in the immediate future. "I believe that, for the time being, it will not be possible. We have to explore all possibilities on our end," he told media correspondents during a conference on organic farming, held in Havana. (Reuters, 13/5/08)

May 13: Moscow and Havana are in talks on shipments of Russian aircraft. "Talks are underway on selling an additional consignment of Russian aircraft to Cuba," Russian Ambassador to Cuba Mikhail Kamynin told Interfax. Two Ilyushin Il-96's and four Tupolev-204 planes - two passenger and two cargo - were recently supplied to Cuba, he said. Russian-Cuban military cooperation has a great future, the Russian ambassador said. "Russian-Cuban relations have become self-sufficient lately and do not depend on any political situation," he said. (Interfax, 13/5/08)

May 14: The Cuban government will implement a "rigorously selective" policy for the foreign firms already established or looking to invest in the island, said Ricardo Guerrero, vice-minister of Foreign Investment. According to the official, the authorities’ strategy is to give priority to those proposals that contribute capital, technology or markets that facilitate the economic growth of the country. (IPS, 14/5/08)

May 14: The difficulties that forced Cuban peasants to seek improbable solutions to deal with the economic crisis that began here in the 1990s now form a reference point in the agricultural policy of the Raul Castro government. How to produce more on less land, how to build your own tractor and other things are some of the achievements being showcased by Cuban peasants at the 7th International Meeting of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture. The seminar is taking place as Cuba's new president, Gen. Raul Castro, is pushing a thorough agricultural reform with the aim of revamping and revitalizing a very depressed sector that, for the authorities, is a question of "national security." Part of the government's move is based on the experience of peasants like Emilio Martinez, a cattleman who gave a talk on how to get his milk cows to be more productive and healthier with a preparation made from the "noni," a bitter-tasting fruit that grows wild in Cuba. "I had to go out to find alternatives to be able to raise and manage all those animals at lower cost and I thought of the noni," Martinez told Efe after describing how the fruit had helped increase production on his cattle ranch. (EFE, 14/5/08)

May 15: Greek consortium Domus Selecta, has included its first hotel in Cuba. The Hotel Santa Isabel is an exclusive establishment located in Old Havana, the historical heart of the Cuban capital. With this addition, the brand of hotels belonging to Hotusa Hotels now has presence in some twenty countries and enlarges its portfolio to over 200 member establishments. (Travel Daily News, 15/5/08)

May 16: Venezuela supports the entry of Brazil and Cuba into the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as their exploration programs are likely to make them exporters, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula said he wanted Brazil to join the group, less than a year after Chavez first joked about the possibility in the wake of an oil find that may be the biggest in the Americas since 1976. State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA agreed a year ago to explore blocks off Cuba. (Bloomberg, 16/5/08)

May 16: Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said that his country would be pleased to see Turkish entrepreneurs to manage hotels in Cuba. In an exclusive interview with the pess, Cruz said talks were underway with Turkish tour operators and that there was a growing interest in Turkish people to explore Cuba. Cruz also said tourism was one of the most important sectors of Cuban economy. (Turkish Press/16/5/08)

May 16: Cuban agriculture experts are immersed in the promotion of food production through more efficient and sustainable means. An official with the Cuban Association of Agriculture and Forest Technicians, Hiram Fano, (ACTAF), explained that important and feasible initiatives are being expanded throughout the country through a program of exchange among grassroots’ producers. The project encourages the development of sustainable organic agriculture in harmony with nature and society. It comprises production-related initiatives tailored to meet local needs and based on resources in each area, explained Fano. He said ACTAF has more than 20,000 members and works in conjunction with the Cuban Agriculture Ministry and farmers to contribute to increasing production and promoting further training. (ACN, 16/5/08) 

May 17: A large Cuban trade delegation has arrived in India looking for cooperation in cars, pharmaceuticals, tourism and more. Armed with its famous rum and cigars, the hardline communist state that is gradually opening up its economy to outsiders also has a lot on offer. "Indian cars like the Nano and Maruti have a potential market in Cuba," Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, Cuba's ambassador to India, told the press ahead of the arrival of a large trade delegation to New Delhi from Havana. The 19-member delegation, led by Eduardo Escandell Amador, the deputy minister in Cuba's ministry of foreign trade, will be in New Delhi for 12 days to hold interactions with Indian leaders, government officials and the captains of trade and industry. The three major Indian outfits, FICCI, CII and Assocham will all hold separate meetings with the visitors from Cuba. (IANS, 18/5/08)

May 18: Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the biggest mobile phone company in the Middle East by number of subscribers, is looking to enter the mobile phone market in Cuba, Chief Executive Officer Naguib Sawiris said. "Cuba is opening up,'' Sawiris said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt. "We would be interested in entering in whatever way we can.'' (Bloomberg, 18/5/08)

May 19: Companies from ten countries have already confirmed their presence in the Expocaribe International Trade Fair that takes place in Santiago de Cuba from June 1-6. Carmen Rodriguez, a delegate of the Chamber of Commerce of South Eastern Cuba, said that the nations that have already confirmed their participation in the fair are Belgium – with 13 companies -, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy, Panama, Venezuela, Holland, Germany, Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago. (ACN, 19/5/08) 

May 19: A government delegation from Uruguay is visiting Cuba to celebrate a meeting on Foreign Offices and other economic, industrial and scientist-technique cooperation. Both parts hope to sign several agreements of collaboration and to ratify or strengthen others in commercial, energy and oil prospecting, health and adult"s education areas. Ministry of Social Development Sub-secretary Ana Olivera told the press that one of the objectives will be to strengthen cooperation in the island, spreading the campaign of alphabetization in Uruguay, based on Cuban method "Yo si puedo". Bilateral conversations will take place during the third Meeting of the Mixed Commission of Economic-Industrialist and Scientist-Technique Cooperation, with the participation of representatives of several Uruguayan state-owned and independent organizations. Foreign Affairs Sub-secretary Pedro Vaz is heading the Uruguayan delegation. (Cuba Headlines,19/5/08)

May 19: A Cuban business delegation headed by the President of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, Raul Becerra, was received at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. The Cuban ambassador to Moscow, Jorge Marti, said that during the meeting the visitors spoke with their Russian counterparts about topics such as business opportunities in Cuba, investments, and the export of Cuban products to Russia. In Saint Petersburg, the Cuban delegation was received by the head of the Chamber of Commerce of the city, Vladimir Kateniev, while the Cuban businessmen exchanged ideas with their Russian counterparts about viable mechanisms and areas of cooperation. Becerra noted that there are excellent perspectives of exchange in the sectors of wood production, information technologies, communications, transportation, culture, and the textile, furniture, rum and biotechnology industries. (ACN, 20/5/08)

May 20: Uruguay's Deputy Foreign Minister Pedro Vaz fostered collaboration ties currently existing between his country and Cuba, after signing several accords of mutual interest. Vaz, who attended the Third Cuba-Uruguay Intergovernmental Joint Commission and the Inter-Ministerial Political Consultation, said the meetings expressed the satisfactory state of bilateral relations. According to the visitor, agreements include several collaboration areas from eye surgery programs and education cooperation to the oil sphere. The Uruguayan official termed the meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque very positive for issues of common interest, Granma daily reported. (Prensa Latina, 21/5/08)

May 21: The Minister of Basic Industry of Cuba, Yadira García, was welcomed at Petrobras’ main office building, in Rio de Janeiro, where she participated in a work meeting with Company executives. During the meeting, issues regarding the cooperation agreement signed between Petrobras and the National Cuban Oil Company (Cupet), signed on January 15 2008, were discussed. The document calls for initiatives in the exploration & production, lubricant, refining, maintenance, research & development, and human resource areas. Petrobras and Cupet also examined the possibility of beginning seismic surveys in an offshore area in the Cuban sector of the Gulf of Mexico in the near future. Since the late 1990’s, foreign companies have been authorized to operate in that region. Progress was also made in the negotiations aimed at building a lubricant plant in Havana. For this purpose, the terms of the association agreement between Petrobras and Cupet to incorporate a mixed company are being negotiated. (La Société, 21/5/08)

May 22: At a time when the international market price of rice tops US $1,220 a ton, producers, researchers and agronomists from different parts of the world will converge in Havana from June 2 to 6 to discuss the current situation and prospects for this vital crop. The Fourth International Rice Congress will discuss the transfer of sustainable technologies, information updates and how to enrich genetic diversity. Jorge Luis Hernandez, director of the Rice Research Institute, said Cuba is working to increase the number of high-yield rice varieties, reported Granma newspaper. While there are presently experimental zones and fields with higher yields, the national rice production averages 4 tons per hectare. The specialists consider the indicator positive when it reaches between 5 and 7.6 tons. By 2015, Cuba hopes to recover the volume of rice it used to produce in the 1980s when 3,500 hectares were under cultivation. (ACN, 22/5/08)

May 23: Joining the list of nations that are keen to have the Indian Nano ply on their roads, Cuba said the world's cheapest car from the house of Tatas has huge potential in the Caribbean nation. Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade Eduardo Escandell Amador, who is leading a 19-member delegation to India, would meet senior officials from Tata Motors in Mumbai to explore business tie-ups. "Next week we will meet Tata Motors and Essar Group executives to explore business opportunities. Indian cars like the Nano and Maruti have a potential market in Cuba,'' Cuban Ambassador to India Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos said. Besides Nano, Ramos said there is a huge potential for Tata trucks and buses in that country. Cuba is looking at increasing its trade with India to $300 million over the next three years on the back of enhanced cooperation in sectors like auto, power, oil and gas. (Hindu Times, 23/5/08)

May 23: A new air corridor between Brazil and Cuba will come into service starting July, under the flags of Brazilians operators Sanchat Tour and national airline TAM. As explained in Havana by Roberto Silva, Sanchat CEO, the project will connect the cities of Sao Paulo and Havana on a weekly basis. Cuban tour operator Havanatur will also be participating. (El Nuevo Herald, 23/5/08)

May 25: Raul Castro's government will eliminate the dual-currency system that is the bane of so many Cubans but it may take a while, the head of parliament's economic commission said. The remarks by Osvaldo Martinez during a visit to Madrid represented the state's latest acknowledgment that the existence of two currencies has produced social strains and a class divide on the communist island. "The government's policy is elimination of the dual currency, which in some way hurt the national self-esteem, but we need a minimum of monetary reserves for a normal exchange rate, price and wage reforms and greater economic efficiency," Martinez said in an interview published in El Pais newspaper. Cuba uses a convertible peso known as the CUC, which is tied to the U.S. dollar, and a Cuban peso known as the moneda nacional. (Sun Sentinel, 27/5/08)

May 26: Cuba will meet domestic demand for refined and raw sugar this year, the official media said, after importing 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes of low-grade refined sugar from Brazil and Colombia in recent years. "Sugar Ministry specialists assured me all the raw sugar for the domestic economy, as well as refined, was secure, that it has already been produced," Cuba's top sugar reporter Juan Varela Perez said on his regular radio spot. Varela said Cuba had refined much more sugar than during the previous harvest without giving any figures. Cuba consumes a minimum 700,000 tonnes of sugar per year, and 400,000 tonnes are destined for China. Provincial radio reports indicated output this season was around 1.4 million tonnes so far, compared with just under 1.2 million tonnes the previous harvest. (Reuters, 26/5/08)

May 27: A worldwide rise in food prices began to reflect on products sold at hard-currency-only stores throughout the island. Store clerks indicated that the price of cooking oil showed an average mark up of $0.11 USD (4 %); beer, another $0.11 USD (10 %); all flavors of ice cream, $0.06 USD (4 %), with the exception of chocolate, which rose twice as much; while the price tag of powdered milk increased by almost 18 %. (AFP, 27/5/08)

May 27: Work begins on cleaning out the seabed of the bay of the country’s second largest city, Santiago de Cuba, with the goal of increasing the operating capacity and allowing access to larger vessels. Some 2.6 million cubic meters of sediment are expected to be removed by October this year to increase the port’s depth to 11 meters. Environmental experts will monitor the work at the bay, while a warning has been issued limiting fishing, swimming and other sports and recreational activity in the area. (ACN, 27/5/08)

May 28: At a time of worldwide food shortages and soaring prices, Cuba has enough rice supplies to meet the population's food subsidies for the remainder of 2008, a Cuban official said. Pedro Alvarez, president of the island's food import company Alimport, told state television news that 18 ships, stocked mostly with Vietnamese rice, were in Cuban ports, waiting to be unloaded. The price of a ton of rice has tripled in recent months, Alvarez said. The ton sitting in Cuban ports cost the state about $1,250. Rice is a staple of the island diet, with each Cuban consuming an average of 132 pounds a year. Trade agreements with Vietnam assured a steady supply of rice for the next few years, Alvarez said. Cuba spent $1.7 billion on food imports in 2007 and that figure is expected to jump to $2 billion this year. The island is looking to increase domestic food production. "All imports that could be substituted at acceptable prices should be substituted," Alvarez said. Cubans receive seven pounds of rice as part of their monthly food ration. (Sun Sentinel, 29/5/08)

May 28: Venezuela and Cuba have formed a joint steel-making company called Aceros del Alba CA, which will make steel products in Venezuela, according to a decree published in the Venezuelan Official Gazette. The company is 51 percent owned by Venezuela and 49 percent owned by Cuba, and will be run by Venezuela's Mining and Basic Industries Ministry, according to the decree. (Bloomberg, 28/5/08)

May 30: A notable increase in the production of organic honey was reported by co-ops in the easternmost province of Guantanamo, which have nearly doubled projected production amounts for this time of year. More than 40 tons of environmentally friendly, organic honey -in high demand in the international market- was produced. The increase in the production was achieved in the municipalities of Guantanamo, San Antonio del Sur and Imias. A representative of the Agricultura de Montaña group, Fernando Trenzado,
told the press that before the end of 2008, more than 100 tons of ecological honey are expected to be collected in Guanatanamo, the first province in the country to produce it. (ACN, 30/5/08)

May 30: A slight increase in the number of births in Cuba was reported by local authorities, but not enough to change the country's overall trend of an aging population. In statements to Granma newspaper, the director of the Population Research Center of the National Statistics Office, Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, said there were 1,149 more births in 2007 than in the previous year. According to the center’s estimates, by 2025, there will be 74,000 people less than the current population of 11,236,790. "We have reached the peak and it is forecasted that we will not reach 12 million," he noted. Fraga said that at the same time Cuban population is aging. He pointed out that by the end of 2007 people over the age of 60 represented 16.6 percent of the population and forecasted that by the year 2025, they will represent 26.1 percent. (ACN, 30/5/08)

May 30: Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, said that his country wants to be Cuba’s number-one partner, and he announced new projects between both countries in the short term. At the opening of a business seminar in Havana, the Brazilian foreign minister said that he wanted to express not only Brazil’s willingness, but its firmest and deep desire to take part in the current stage of Cuban economy. The Brazilian minister, who started a two-day official visit to Cuba, said his country will contribute with the technological development, food production, and the building of infrastructures on the Cuban archipelago. Amorim told reporters that both countries are currently working on actions that will favor economic sectors such as industrial production and services, agriculture equipment and the building of roads. He said the deals are expected to be signed within two or three weeks. “We count on political, economic and technical conditions that favor the present state of relations,” said Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez, adding that in 2007 commercial relations with Brazil reached 450 million dollars, and that by the end of April this year, bilateral trade went up to 58 percent compared to the same period last year.  (ACN, 30/5/08)

May 30: Brazil and Cuba announced that the South American powerhouse was providing technical assistance and seed to the Communist-run Caribbean island to grow soybeans on an industrial scale for the first time. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, speaking in Havana to a meeting of Brazilian and Cuban businessmen, said the project represented "a new and important moment for Cuba's development." Amorim, who arrived on Cuba with dozens of businessmen for a two-day visit, said land was already identified for the project and seed ready. Brazil is one of the world's largest producers of genetically modified soy, but it was not clear if it would be used in Cuba. Amorim said joint ventures might be formed in the future. "I believe we are talking about 30,000 to 40,000 hectares of land to start, but with possibilities to extend it," Cuban Foreign Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez said. "We have to develop it little by little because it is not something we have grown before in Cuba," he said. (Reuters, 30/5/08)

May 30: Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is studying a block in deep Cuban waters for possible exploration as part of broader cooperation with the Caribbean island, a top advisor to the company said. "We are planning to cooperate not only in exploration and production, but lubricants, refining and training," Andre Ghirardi told the press in Havana at a one-day meeting of Brazilian and Cuban businessmen. "We are working on the possibility of exploring a block in the Gulf of Mexico, but negotiations have not ended, they are advancing," he said. Interest in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico blocks has picked up as oil prices soar. Seven foreign companies have signed exploration agreements with Cuban state oil company CUPET for 28 of the 59 blocks available in the deep Gulf of Mexico waters of Cuba's economic exclusion zone fronting the United States. The US Geological Survey estimated the North Cuba basin could contain 4.6 billion barrels of oil, with a high-end potential of 9.3 billion barrels, and close to 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Ghirardi said negotiations to build a lubricants plant in Cuba were going well, though no agreement had been signed. (Reuters, 30/5/08)

May 31: As Raúl Castro embarks on an ambitious plan to kick-start the communist nation's economy, he faces a daunting challenge: Many Cubans simply do not work. Decades of measly salaries and vast government subsidies have kept many young people off the labor rolls because it's more lucrative to hustle on the street. Others live comfortably enough off money sent from Miami and elsewhere. While Cuba struggles to increase productivity, it must also find a way to entice hundreds of thousands of people to get a job. The dilemma is one of the profound systemic difficulties Castro faces as he tries to create a so-called modern socialist economy. The government says there are plenty of jobs -- just low-paying ones Cubans won't take. Even educated professionals would rather work in the tourist industry as waiters or taxi drivers, which earns them far more money than state jobs that usually offer about $10 a month. According to Granma, the communist party newspaper, 20 percent of the working-age population in Havana is unemployed; nearly half of them turn down jobs when they are offered; 17 percent of the more than 17,000 recent technical school graduates did not show up for the jobs they were offered. Another 200 of them stopped coming in after a few months. (The Miami Herald, 31/5/08)