Chronicle on Cuba - June 2008

Economy

June 1: Cuban Minister of Basic Industries Yadira Garcia told the local media that Cuba and Venezuela will begin a joint venture to build a new nickel plant in the region of Holguin, in the east of the Caribbean island. The development of the plant will last three years and will cost US$700 million; in addition, the plant will require complementary investments in energy generation. Once the works have finished, Cuba’s nickel production will exceed 100,000 tonnes per year. At the moment nickel output is close to 75,000 tonnes. Garcia also revealed that Cuba is considering three more joint ventures with other countries to expand and update the existing nickel facilities. (AFP, 2/6/08)

June 1: Cuba experienced a 37% growth of its commercial exchange of goods and services in the first four months of 2008, compared to the same period of last year. This was announced by Foreign Trade Minister Raul de la Nuez during the inauguration ceremony of the 15th Expocaribe International Trade Fair that began in eastern Santiago de Cuba with the participation of 187 firms from 28 countries. (ACN, 1/6/08)
 
June 2: Cuba and the Dominican Republic signed an agreement that includes joint actions to promote bilateral trade and investment during the second day of the 15th Expocaribe International Trade Fair that is underway in eastern Santiago de Cuba City with the participation of 187 firms from 28 countries. The document was signed by the president of Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce, Raul Becerra, and by Eddy Martinez, executive director of the Export and Investment Center (CEI-RD) of the neighbouring Caribbean nation. The accord includes the organization of business delegations between both countries as well as Cuba’s participation in trade fairs in the Dominican Republic. (ACN,3/6/08)

June 2: British leisure group Havana Holdings has formed an unlikely alliance with Sir Terence Conran and the Cuban government to establish a range of hotels and golf resorts in the Caribbean country's first direct investment by a UK tourism company. Havana, the company behind the Floridita bar chain, has formed a 50:50 joint venture with the Cuban government with plans to build hotels and golf resorts in the country. Sir Terence's architecture company Conran & Partners has been hired to design several sites. Esencia Hotels and Resorts - a subsidiary of Havana Holdings - will spend about €350m (£275m) setting up the flagship resort, the six-star Carbonera Country Club, and has government approval for a series of similar projects across the country. Esencia and the Cuban government have injected €20m up-front, while talks with commercial property funds to gather further investment are progressing. The balance will be financed by bank debt, said Esencia chairman Michael Phair. Esencia chief executive Andrew Macdonald, whose brother Ranald is a major shareholder in London's Boisedale restaurants, said that Esencia had four further sites identified across Cuba. He said the investment underlined the Cuban government's determination to attract foreign investment and target affluent visitors through golf. (Telegraph.co, 2/6/08)

June 3: Cuba has 59 blocks of deep Gulf of Mexico waters claimed in an economic exclusion zone fronting the United States. Of the 59, 28 have been reserved for exploration by seven foreign companies. The latest to join is the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras which signed the agreement with the Cuban state oil company CUPET on June 30. 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. PDVSA of Venezuela is already a major partner of Cuba in oil, taking out blocks in the gulf and building and modernizing refineries. Others signing agreements include Spain's Repsol-YPF, India's ONGC and Nordsk Hydro, Vietnam state oil and gas group Petrovietnam, Malaysia's state-run Petronas and Canada's Sherritt International. (The Jawa Report, 3/6/08)

June 3: The government of Raúl Castro took a new step towards the centralization of foreign trade, as indicated by official decrees terminating the operations of about 30 state companies and banning trade relations between Cuban entities and free trade zone operators. Pursuant to Resolution 193/2008, the Ministry of Foreign Trade (MINCEX) removed the authority of 29 state companies and enterprises to engage in foreign trade. It also amended the list of products approved for import by authorized organizations. The resolution curtails to 16 the number of MINCEX-cleared state entities allowed to import goods. Resolution 191/2008 repeals previous regulations governing the procurement and sale of goods by Cuban entities from free trade zones and industrial parks -- an activity that has remained drastically restricted since mid 2004. [Resoluciones en La Gaceta Oficial] (El Nuevo Herald, 3/6/08)

June 3: The 3rd Cuba-CARICOM Business Committee voiced its aspiration to untie knots which could hinder trade in the region for the benefit of Caribbean nations. Raul Becerra, president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce stressed the need to enhance the enormous possibilities of a market offering a natural environment for trade. On his part, Nigel John, president of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, identified as main guidelines those of energy, education, food security, physical integrity, competitivity and transportation. He recognized Cuban advances despite difficult conditions and affirmed that only unity will guarantee success in the efforts to face existing challenges. Among the obstacles for trade, he mentioned the scarce knowledge of export offers, deficient access of competitive Cuban products to those markets, insufficient use of embassies and trade representations, language differences and expensive transportation costs. (ACN, 3/6/08)

June 3: The government of President Raul Castro expects reforms applied to Cuba's farming sector to start producing results as soon as next year in the form of a 5 percent to 10 percent fall in food imports. Cuba is restructuring its long-neglected agricultural sector on the basis of decentralization, providing land and resources for peasants and cooperatives and assuring better prices for producers. Deputy Agriculture Minister Juan Perez Lama told reporters that the programs were designed to start showing results in 2009, when he said the communist-ruled island would spend around $1.9 billion on food imports while working to boost domestic production of staples such as rice and beans. He said officials hope to reduce rice imports by 50 percent within five years, though acknowledging that Cuba would never be completely self-sufficient in food. Even as Cuba imports 84 percent of the food consumed by its 11.2 million inhabitants, most of the island's arable land is left idle or not exploited efficiently. Part of the new policy introduced by President Raul Castro involves converting state-owned farm enterprises into something resembling the agricultural extension services that provide advice and information to farmers in the United States. "The number of state enterprises that existed is being reduced as more land is provided to cooperatives, to the workers, so that those organizations that were previously producers (…) are no longer necessary," Perez Lama said. He also said that restructuring is being carried out among cooperatives, where a motley assortment of organizations coexist in the sector, together with greater or lesser participation and capacity for autonomy. (EFE, 3/6/08)

June 3: Cuba has increased rice production in Camaguey to shield the domestic market from raising world market prices. The rice company "Ruta Invasora" has been the only one to confirm plans to plant over 16650 acres, which the company has not complied since the year 2000. Company director Idelino Alvarez, said the harvest campaign will successfully secure success of the present crop and future land preparation. The official also announced arrival of 12 tractors, 45 combined harvesters plus three harvesters made in Italy to improve rice crop recovery in this territory. (Prensa Latina, 3/6/08)

June 5: Cuban professionals and the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research are developing a joint project aimed at studying what is known as “stress” in rice production, which is caused by drought or saline soils. Scientific papers on these two aspects were presented during the 4th International Encounter on Rice, underway in Havana. Addressing the salinity-based rice stress, Miriam Nuñez Vazquez, from the Cuban Institute of Agricultural Sciences, told the press that the issue is tackled during various cultivation stages, and that seeds are treated with plant hormones that contribute to the development and growth of rice and that also encourage yield known as Biobras 6 and
Biobras 16, said Nuñez. (ACN, 5/6/08)

June 6: A cooperation accord to promote economic and commercial relations between Cuba and the Wallona region of Belgium was signed at the International Expo-Caribe Fair, underway in Santiago de Cuba. The document —signed by Cuban Chamber of Commerce President Raul Becerra and his counterpart Pascal Beckers, who is also the advisor to the region’s minister of the Economy— lays the foundation for the strengthening of bilateral exchange. Cuba and Belgium are increasing their economic ties and are exploring new business opportunities, which are the objectives of the visit of a
delegation made up by Belgian producers, officials, and merchants to the island’s eastern provinces. (ACN, 6/6/08)

June 6: Cuban airline Aerocaribbean will inaugurate a flight between Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and the Haitian capital of Port au Prince in July. At the announcement, the airline added that flight frequency between popular tourist resort Punta Cana and the main Cuban beach city of Varadero will be increased to twice a week from July 8. Besides, a third weekly flight from Santiago de Cuba to Port au Prince is likely to be operated between June 24 and Oct. 21 this year. Those moves are a notable step toward attracting multi-destination tourists in the region. (Xinhua, 6/6/08)

June 6: At the request of the Cienfuegos Environmental Studies Center (CEAC), the French scientific research vessel ANTEA will remain in the bay of this southern Cuban costal province conducting a study to determine the pollution level of its waters. The study will be helpful in determining the measures to be implemented during emergency situations brought on by climate change affecting coastal areas. The director of the Camelia Research Unit, Renaud Fichez, explained that the exploration of Cuban southern coastal waters is part of a campaign called “Bahia” (Bay) sponsored by the Research Institute for Development of France, and the French universities of Marseille and Lille that have been working in cooperation with Cuba for five years. (ACN, 6/6/08)

June 6: Varadero beach resort received the 2007 Star Award granted by the Russian Travel Portal travel.ru. Thousands of tourists voted on the Internet for the Cuban route as the Best Caribbean Destination. Varadero was the first choice of Russian travelers, who were to pick between several destinations in Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic,Barbados, and other Caribbean islands. Carlos Oscar Hernandez, representative of the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, received the award in Moscow. (ACN, 6/6/08)

June 8: Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage announced that the government of General Raul Castro will reduce or postpone certain investments because of the rise in international food and fuel prices, the official daily Juventud Rebelde reported. "Some of the main investment programs have been reduced and new reductions will be necessary. In no case will they be abandoned, but their aims will be adjusted and they will be postponed," said Lage after meeting with municipal leaders. According to the vice president, the reductions are "the result of the impact on the economy of the increases in the prices of fuels, food and practically everything we import." In 2007, Cuba spent $1.47 billion to import 3.4 million tons of food, said Lage, adding that "to import the same (amount) at today's prices would require spending $2,552 billion, a billion more." The Cuban government will import more than 80 percent of the food that it provides at subsidized prices, via the rationing program, to the communist island's 11 million citizens, according to official sources. Lage added that the 158,000 barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum Cuba consumed last year "cost $8.7 million and this year it will cost 32 percent more. That is to say, $11.6 million each day." The vice president said that, despite the reductions, "the 2008 investment plan is about 29 percent greater than last year and 2.4 times larger than the one for 2000," but he did not provide specific figures. "I'm not going to mention on this occasion our difficulties. You know them and are experiencing them, our press skillfully reflects them more and more and the international press amplifies and multiplies them," Lage said. (EFE, 8/6/08)

June 9: Vietnam will ensure sufficient rice supply for Cuba this year, despite the recently significant increase in the price of rice in the world market, Vietnamese commercial counselor to Cuba, Nguyen Thai Binh, said. Vietnam is Cuba’s main rice supplier providing around 400,000 tons per year. Cuba’s rice consumption has reached about 600,000 tons per year, while its annual output is only 100,000 tons, according to Cuba’s National Statistics Office (ONE). Vietnam for many years has cooperated with Cuba to develop wet rice farming, sending experts to give technical assistance for rice cultivation in six Cuban provinces which has helped increase rice yield by three times to eight to nine tons per hectare. (VNA, 9/6/08)

June 9: Cuba and Venezuela will install an undersea optical fiber cable connecting the two countries to counter the US embargo, Cuba's official daily Granma reported. The cable will have a total capacity of 640 gigabytes with 320 for each optical fiber, increasing by 3,000 times Cuba's data, voice and video transmission capacity with other countries, said Carlos Orfilia, the Venezuelan official adviser of the project. He said advanced technology would be used to guarantee Cuba andVenezuela's independence in telecommunications. This project will end Cuba's dependence on satellites services made expensive due to the US embargo, said Wilfredo Morales, director of the Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe Commpany, the Cuba-Venezuela joint venture created to build and operate the planned cable. The decades-long US embargo on Cuba has prevented other telecommunication companies from connecting lines to the island, like that of Miami-Cancun, which is only 32 km away from Havana pier. (Xinhua, 9/6/08)

June 10: Iran is to send 56 freight cars worth about $7.8 million to Cuba, the Tehran Times reported, citing an industry official. About half the cars are cement carriers and the other half are fuel tankers, the newspaper said, citing Gholamreza Razzazi, the managing director of Pars Wagon Co. Pars Wagon Co. also signed a $265 million agreement with Cuba to supply the Cuban railway with 550 freight cars and 200 passenger carriages, the newspaper said. (Bloomberg, 10/6/08)

June 11: The Fifth Session of the Cuba-Jamaica Intergovernmental Commission concluded in Havana with the signing of a Cooperation Protocol for the period 2008-2010. The accord was signed by Jamaican Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Kenneth Baugh, and by the Cuban Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Marta Lomas. The agreement includes cooperation in several sectors such as health, education, tourism, hydraulic resources, agriculture, housing, and others. Lomas and Baugh, who is also Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, expressed their satisfaction at the results of the meeting as they include areas of great importance for both countries. (ACN, 11/6/08)

June 11: The egalitarian wage system Fidel Castro spent decades building in Cuba is no longer viable, plagued by low pay, corruption and waste that can be eased by paying workers more for better work, a top labor official said in an interview. Carlos Mateu, a vice minister of labor and social security, said many government companies already eliminated have caps on salaries for productive workers and the rest must do so by August. The article in the Communist Party daily Granma contained few direct quotes from Mateu, a practice common in official Cuban media. But it said Mateu "underscored that there has been a tendency for everyone to get the same, and that egalitarianism is not convenient." "That is something we have to resolve," Granma said, adding that the traditional Cuban pay system saps employees' incentives to excel since everyone earns the same regardless of performance. That is "unfair because if it's harmful to give a worker less than he deserves, it's also harmful to give him what he doesn't deserve," the article said. Mateu said the new compensation system fits with the mantra of "socialist distribution" often mentioned by new President Raúl Castro: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work." That's meant to distinguish the current system from Cuba's ideological goal, Karl Marx's formula of communism: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." The vice minister was unavailable for further comment, and a Labor Ministry official said she was not authorized to provide more information. (AP, 11/6/08)

June 12: Cuba’s nickel industry, the country’s number one export, is undergoing a process of expansion and modernization. A government representative, Nestor Castro, told the local press that the industry is currently producing more than 76,000 tons of nickel plus cobalt annually, mostly in the northeastern part of the island, in the province of Holguin, where there are three plants in operation and one under development. Cuba has one of the world’s largest nickel reserves and, along with the investment process, is increasing actions aimed at achieving greater efficiency, stressed Nestor Castro. Large deposits of laterite, rich in nickel and cobalt, are found in the mountainous area of Moa and Nicaro. The Cubaniquel Management Group is in charge of the nickel industry and oversees dozens of suppliers and service companies. (ACN, 12/6/08)

June 13: An agreement signed between the governments of Argentina and Cuba provides for the sale of food products to Havana while Argentina will purchase four million energy efficient light bulbs from Cuba. “We are exchanging Cuban technological know-how in the form of energy efficient light bulbs for food, of which Argentina is a major world exporter,” said the Argentine president, Cristina Fernández. Fernández signed the agreement alongside Cuban ambassador Aramis Fuente Hernández. (Cubaencuentro, 13/6/08)

June 15: Iran’s Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar Mehrabian proposed to the government to increase the letter of credit between Iran and Cuba to 500 million euros. “The current approved letter of credit by Iranian banks for Cuba is 200 million euros, but considering the volume of contracts signed between the two sides recently Iran’s Ministry of Industries and Mines has forwarded a proposal to the government to increase the figure to 500 million euros,” he said on the sidelines of the 13th Iran-Cuba scientific, technological, and economic joint commission held in Tehran. Referring to the growing economic cooperation between Tehran and Havana in the past two years he noted that currently the trade volume between the two countries stood at about 213 million euros. He also talked about the complaints made by Cuban officials regarding bureaucracy and stated that Iran was trying to remove this issue and hoped that with the elimination of bureaucracy bilateral economic cooperation and trade volumes would increase. (Tehran Times, 16/6/08)

June 16: The Tucker Valley Project, carried out with Cuban technical support, was presented at Port of Spain’s Kapok Hotel by the Minister of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources from Trinidad and Tobago, Arnold Piggot. The agreement envisages the development of a farm to produce a variety of products at Chaguaramas, north-east of Trinidad and Tobago, with the help of Cuban specialists.  Attending the ceremony was a delegation from the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture, headed by Engineer Osmar Mendez de la Fe, who is in the final stages of setting up this cooperation project. Cuba’s ambassador to that Caribbean island, Sergio Oliva, reiterated his country’s disposition to offer the technical assistance required to develop the project, which will contribute to revitalize local agriculture by taking advantage of Cuba’s experience in the use of advanced cultivation techniques. (ACN, 16/6/08) 

June 17: Iran's Minsiter of Industries and Mines Ali- Akbar Mehrabian and Cuban Minister of Government Ricardo Cabrisas inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on economic, scientific and technical cooperation. The MoU deals with cooperation in the fields of geology, mining, transportation, investment in technical and engineering projects, supply of aluminum and steel sheets, training of human sources, construction of residential units, agriculture and sports. The 13th meeting of Iran-Cuba joint economic, technical and scientific cooperation commission was held in Tehran from June 15-17. (IRNA, 17/6/08)

June 18: Cuban and Uruguayan entrepreneurs are holding a two-day meeting in Havana, which includes several business sessions and a workshop on bilateral commercial relations. The meeting has been organized by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce in the
context of the current official visit to Cuba by Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez Rosas. The forum is being attended by business people from 70 Uruguayan companies and their Cuban counterparts, in the sectors of information technologies, pharmaceuticals, the food-processing industry, renewable energy sources, transportation, and others. Cuban Economy and Planning Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez and Uruguay’s Finance and Economy Minister Danilo Astory are scheduled to address the participants at the entrepreneurial encounter. (ACN, 18/6/08)

June 20: Cuba has exported more than 350 tons of zeolite to Brazil so far this year, surpassing last year's total exports by 20 tons. The head of sales of the extraction and processing plant in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, Miguel Diaz, told the press that business prospects abroad are good in order to maintain transactions. Twenty-four tons were also sold to Italy, as the government continues to try to open a market for this useful mineral in Europe and, in general, to increase the offer of zeolite for multiple uses. (ACN, 20/6/08)

June 22: The decision by Cuban President Raul Castro to begin paying employees of state enterprises based on merit seeks to improve both living standards and productivity, the deputy labor minister said. "The system of pay for performance seeks to boost wages but based on results," Carlos Mateu Pereira said in an interview with the official daily Juventud Rebelde. The average monthly wage in Cuba is 408 pesos, equivalent to $17 US dollars, but besides that people receive basic foods at subsidized prices through their ration books, and they get health care and other services free of charge. A recent government decree extended to all companies of the only communist country in the Americas the concept of pay for performance, and gave executives until August 1 to get it working. "Pay for performance isn't an end in itself, but a tool for boosting productivity, efficiency and quality," Mateu said after noting several previous failures in Cuba along the same line. The new system sets no cap on what a worker can earn and rewards individual productivity, while in previous experiments the wage stimulus was collective, by companies, and did not work well. "In previous applications a general indicator was used in many places for all the workers in a state enterprise...and by that global indicator everyone was measured and paid, from the company director to a machinist," the deputy minister said. That, he added, "made it very hard to really measure performance in a way that would enable differentiation based on the efforts of individual employees. The worker did not identify the wage hike with his own efforts." (EFE, 23/6/08)
 
June 23: A distillery in Aguada de Pasajeros in Cienfuegos Province has produced 2.34 million gallons of alcohol without consuming a single kilowatt of the island nation's power. The achievement in Cuba's national energy-saving campaign was made possible thanks to a 1923 turbo-generator that sat unused at an old sugar mill, the Communist Party daily Gramna reported. Distillery manager Jose Aleman Lopez said the 2.34 million gallons were produced in 83 consecutive days of operation. The plant's goal is 5.72 million gallons this year. (ACN, 23/6/08)

June 24: Soaring world rice prices have Cubans worried about keeping the national dish of beans and rice on the table — and officials are scrambling to increase local production. Raul Castro's government hopes to halve rice imports over the next five years, according to Juan Perez Lamas, vice minister of agriculture. To do that, it will have to more than double production — currently about 200,000 metric tons of milled rice a year. Cuba now grows just a fourth of the 800,000 metric tons its 11 million people consume annually. Officials say they plan to bring abandoned rice fields back into production, while investing in canals, land-leveling and other technology to help boost output per acre (hectare). They plan to build silos to help store the crop. Some farmers like Jose Antonio Espinosa say they're already getting world-class yields — 17 metric tons of unmilled rice per acre (7 metric tons of unmilled rice per hectare), up from the national average of less than 10 per acre (4 per hectare). Espinosa directs the Camilo Cienfuegos Agricultural Cooperative in the western town of Bahia Honda. So far, only 14 of its 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) are devoted to rice. But Espinosa says that could change. "With the price tripling in recent months, I cannot conceive of someone with a stream or small dam nearby who isn't growing rice," he said. Members of the cooperative get part of the rice for their own use and can sell the rest — some of it to consumers at farmers markets. Cuba's communist leaders so far have resisted raising prices to give farmers a financial incentive to grow more rice, though Ruben Alfonso, a specialist at Cuba's Rice Research Institute, says that is under study. The government has raised prices on some other goods. (AP, 24/6/08)

June 24: Havana may become Cuba’s third largest oil producing territory, after Matanzas and La Habana provinces, said experts of Cuba Petroleo Company (Cupet). CUPET experts said five off-coast exploration wells are to be drilled in Habana del Este, Cojimar, Alamar, Bacuranao and Tarara, at the so-called heavy crude strip, Prensa Latina news agency reported. The specialists said some wells may yield lighter, lower sulphur oil, improving its commercial value and usage, help enhance its industrial power and domestic supply and replace imports. Cubahora rates domestic oil output growth in 2007 in four percent compared to 2006 and near seven fold the 1990 output, and covers 47 per cent of the national demand. (ACN, 24/6/08)

June 24: Cuba's Cienfuegos oil refinery, a joint venture between state oil companies Cuba Petroleum SA and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, will double production to 150,000 barrels a day in 2013, official daily Juventud Rebelde reported. The refinery, which opened in December, currently refines 75,000 barrels a day and will begin expansion projects in late 2009, the Cuban daily said, citing Raul Perez de Prado, the Cuban manager of the joint company. (Bloomberg, 24/6/08)

June 24: Bilateral commerce between Cuba and Venezuela exceeded 2.7 billion US dollars in 2007 and is continuing upwards this year. More exchange is expected in the coming days when a fair of Cuban products reaches the South American country. In the first five months of 2008, the commercial flow accounted for 1.8 billion dollars, 800 million more than in the same period last year, confirmed Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce vice-president Odalys Seijo and Cuban embassy economic adviser Octavio Martinez in Caracas. Seijo told the press that a fair of Cuban products and services will take place in Venezuela from June 25-27, with exhibits by 51 enterprises from 15 economic branches. The display is aimed at further improving and expanding the commercial exchange, and includes products from the food industry, biotechnology, information technologies, as well as environmental, medical and cultural services. (ACN, 24/6/08)

June 25: Russia's No. 2 oil firm LUKOIL has put plans to buy a refinery on Cuba on hold because it is facing delays with oil production projects in Venezuela, its president said in an interview. "Unfortunately, the signing of the Venezuelan projects has been delayed. The laws, which are being approved today by the country, are a burden to its economy," Vagit Alekperov told Russian business daily Kommersant. "So we cannot afford to take the risk of viewing these projects as a source of supply of the Cuban refinery. And to buy a refinery without having crude supply logistics does not make sense," he said. LUKOIL is 20 percent-owned by US oil major ConocoPhillips and has a large network of filling stations in the United States. (Reuters, 26/6/08)

June 26: Cuban First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said in Havana that it is vital for the country to steadily increase domestic food production and consequently reduce imports. At the 82nd Meeting of the National Council of the Cuba's Workers
Federation (CTC), Machado Ventura told union leaders that it is necessary to strengthen the political work at the grassroots to take the maximum advantage of the resources at each institution's disposal. The First Vice President spoke of the new more feasible mechanisms to distribute milk in the country, and mentioned the international food crisis and the rising prices of oil and food worldwide. The general secretary of the CTC Salvador Valdes Mesa agreed with Machado Ventura on the importance of discussing with workers how to meet the economic plan, in order to increase efficiency and productivity. (ACN, 27/6/08)

June 27: Cuba plans to raise the capacity of a refinery in the eastern city of Santiago to 50,000 barrels a day, more than double current output, the island's foreign investment minister said. Minister Martha Lomas, speaking on Cuban television, said socialist ally Venezuela will pick up the tab, but she did not say how much the expansion would cost or when it would be completed. "The expansion of the Santiago de Cuba refinery with help from Venezuela will allow the doubling of production from that plant, with greater quality and efficiency," she said. The plant, located about 500 miles (800 km) east of Havana, was a Texaco refinery before it was nationalized after Cuba's 1959 revolution. With a current capacity said by Venezuela's PDVSA to be 22,000 barrels per day, it processes part of the 92,000 bpd Venezuela provides to Cuba under preferential financial terms. The Cienfuegos facility has a capacity of 65,000 bpd, with plans on the boards to raise it to 150,000 by 2013. (Reuters, 29/6/08)

June 30: An Ethiopian government delegation is to start a series of meetings with Cuban counterparts to foster economic, scientific and technical collaboration between both nations. Ethiopian Finance and Economic Development Minister Mekonnen Manyazewal leads his country's delegation that will participate until July 3 in the Fifth session of the Intergovernmental Commission. Manyazewal's agenda in Cuba includes meeting with Cuban officials in the capital's Ministry for Foreign Investments and Economic Collaboration. Cuba and Ethiopia established diplomatic relations on July 18, 1975, although the diplomatic mission from this African nation in the island was closed from 1992 to 2006. The collaboration between both countries was restarted in mid 1998 and at present Cuban experts in education, health, and sports are working in Ethiopia. (Prensa Latina, 30/6/08)