Chronicle on Cuba - July 2008

Economy

July 1: Cuba is participating in the International Exhibition Zaragoza 2008, with a wide gamut of offers in its exhibition, according to an official report issued by the country's Tourism Ministry. The information, published by the cubatravel.cu Web site, also points out that 105 nations are represented at the Fair, which will be held for three months under the slogan of "Water and Sustainable Development". Debates are centered on technical, scientific, and social aspects of sustainable water. The event’s promoters said it will be one of the largest events on the issue ever held (ACN, 1/7/08).

July 1: Cuba has invited Indian firms to invest in a planned 150,000 barrels a day refinery in the island nation, India's oil ministry said in a statement. It also sought India's help in upgrading and expanding its existing refineries at a meeting in Madrid, between Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora and his Cuban counterpart Yadira Garcia Vera, the statement added. The statement said the two countries have finalised the India-Cuba Hydrocarbon Agreement for co-operation in the oil and gas sector without elaborating its details. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has stakes in nine exploration blocks in Cuba, and total ownership of two (Reuters, 1/7/08).

July 1: Cuba's Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told participants at the 19th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) underway in Madrid about Cuba's Energy Revolution, a project begun in 2004 for better managing and conserving energy. Garcia played a video with program data and targets and the evolution of the energy sector in Cuba. She went on to explain that to date more than 23 million electrical appliances have been replaced by new low-consuming ones, including water pumps, refrigerators, and TV sets. The program is widely supported by the people and the government, said Garcia during a ministerial session on the second day of the WPC. Energy saving and renewable energy sources are the focus of interest in the country, she stressed (ACN, 1/7/08).

July 1: Russian energy companies OAO Gazprom (OGZPY) and OAO Lukoil Holdings (LUKOY) may revive Soviet-era ties to enter the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico through its Cuban backdoor. Gazprom and Lukoil "are interested in" Cuban hydrocarbons acreage, the country's Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told Dow Jones Newswires at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid. She said no deal had been signed but that the two companies have looked into offshore acreage in the Cuban part of the Gulf of Mexico. One person close to state-owned Gazprom said that the company's oil arm, Gazprom Neft (SIBN.RS), is interested in possible Cuban projects. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union supplied Cuba with cheap oil, as well as thousands of other goods and commodities (Dow Jones, 1/7/08).

July 1: A business delegation from the Chamber of Industries of Nicaragua is in Havana to promote trade relations between Cuba and the Central American country. Humberto Arguellos, who heads the group of members of the private sector and officials from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Industry and Commerce, explained that they brought to Cuba a proposal that could reach $20 million in imports. The Nicaraguan delegation is made up of businesspeople from the mechanical, meat, and leather shoe sectors, among others, from companies such as Industrial San Martín, Quibor, CAPSA and Delmor. Svetlana Contreras, coordinator of the visit, commented that the offer of exports could reach the figure of $47 million, which they will discuss with the Cuban Chamber of Commerce (ACN, 1/7/08).

July 2: The Brazilian and Cuban state oil companies, Petrobras and CUPET, are on track to sign an oil exploration deal this year. Fidel Rivero, president of CUPET, is quoted by the Estado, a local newspaper, as saying "we are in the concluding phase of a deal. We hope to announce something in coming months." Cuba has around 240 million barrels of proved oil reserves and natural gas in its offshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico, and potential oil resources have been estimated by some as between 4-9 billion barrels. Several companies have been hovering, some more tentatively than others, around the island in anticipation of being allowed to explore the region. While American companies are barred from participating in activities in Cuba as a result of the US embargo on the island, European firms as well as some from Russia and China have been keen to engage in discussions with CUPET where possible (Dow Jones, 2/7/08).

July 4: Venezuela and Cuba signed an agreement to create a joint steel-making company called Aceros del Alba CA, which will make steel products in Venezuela, Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias reported. The company, whose $1.5 billion investment will come from Venezuela, plans to produce 500,000 metric tons of stainless steel, the state news agency said. The steel-maker will be located in Venezuela's eastern state of Monagas, ABN said. The steel-maker will be 51 per cent owned by Venezuela and 49 per cent owned by the Cuban group, Acinox Steel Industrial Group, ABN reported. A ferronickel plant will be built in Cuba to provide the raw material for the steel plant, ABN said. The plant will be 51 per cent owned by Cuba and 49 per cent owned by Venezuela, the state news agency said. Rodolfo Sanz, Venezuela's Minister of Basic Industries and Mining, said the steel-making plant should begin construction this year and be operating in three years. Sanz signed the agreement in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela with Herbert Ballart, president of Acinox (Bloomberg, 4/7/08).

July 8: The Cuban Parliament Food and Agriculture Committee reported a modest but promising increase in the domestic production of foodstuffs that are usually imported. “This is just the beginning of a program that must overcome numerous organizational limitations and obstacles and make better use of available resources to obtain a better second semester,” said Committee President Leonardo Martinez as quoted by Granma. The committee members agreed on the need to develop a sound incentive, provide policy for farmers and, above all, consolidate advances to avoid backtracking (ACN, 8/7/08).

July 8: New Cuban President Raul Castro's promise to improve daily life is running up against soaring fuel and food prices for the import-dependent country. Belt-tightening is in order, the official media said. "Adjustments and restrictions are inevitable" warned Radio Rebelde, leading off its national morning newscast with coverage of a parliamentary hearing on the economy. No information was available on what adjustments and restrictions were under consideration except that they involved social spending and retail prices. Economy and Planning Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez told the hearing on July 7 the economy was performing relatively well, with industrial production up 6.2 per cent over the first half of 2007, agriculture 7.5 per cent, and tourism 14.5 per cent, among other key sectors. At the same time he said wages continued to rise more than productivity in an economy more than 90 per cent controlled by the state. Rodriguez warned there was no escape from soaring prices given the country imports 50 per cent of its fuel and more than 50 per cent of its basic food stuffs. "The substantial increase in the prices of fuel and food on the international market so far this year and projections for the remainder will inevitably force adjustments and restrictions on the economy and plans for next year," Granma quoted Rodriguez as saying (Reuters, 8/7/08).

July 8: President Raul Castro will allow private contractors back into Cuba's transport sector, after almost a decade on the sidelines, to try to jumpstart the stalled system, official media reported. Private drivers were barred from operating in Cuba back in 1999 with no explanation, sparking outrage from drivers. Their work was first made legal during a brief foray into open markets in the 1990s–after the collapse of the former Soviet bloc that subsidized Cuba's food and energy–when many forms of self employment were permitted. Backtracking later ensued on most forms of self-employment. But Transport Minister Jorge Luis Sierra said on state media late Tuesday "a decision has been made, and is going to be implemented in the coming days" to re-legalize private operators, if not in a format seen before. "There will be two types of licenses: one for rural transport and one for certain urban areas," Sierra said on Radio Rebelde. Licenses "will be approved one at a time, the fuel will be given (to the operator), prices, routes and schedules will be set. It's as if it were a public bus," Sierra told lawmakers set for their first working session since Raul Castro took the helm of Cuba. Sierra said Havana planned to spend $2 billion on public transport improvements, about a quarter of which would be for 5,000 buses, mostly from China (Reuters, Global Insight Daily Analysis, 9/7/08).

July 8: Expectations that Cuba's new President Raul Castro would open up the country to more foreign investors have yet to see it materialize, according to testimony before a parliamentary commission. Granma reported there were fewer investment projects than when Raul Castro provisionally took over the government in July 2006 from ailing brother Fidel Castro. Granma, quoting testimony by a senior investment official, reported state companies are involved in 234 joint ventures and 12 cooperative production agreements that encompass approximately two per cent of the work force. At the close of 2005, the government reported there were 258 joint ventures and 115 cooperative production agreements. In July 2007 Castro called for more foreign investment, especially in agriculture, but to date the only new agreements signed and announced have been with Venezuela to perform risk assessment of oil exploration in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters. Cuba has formed 24 new ventures with Venezuela, which under socialist President Hugo Chavez has become Cuba's close ally and major benefactor. Officials say that despite fewer investors, direct investment has increased, as have venture revenues and profits (Reuters, ACN, 9/7/08).

July 9: Cuba is investing in sugar-cutting combines, trucks and other equipment and retooling mills in preparation for a big jump in output in 2008-2009, the official media said. "The country is planning a 25-30 per cent increase in sugar and molasses for the coming harvest and will meet refined sugar demand," testified Orlando Garcia Ramirez, Vice Minister of Sugar, before a parliament hearing as reported by the Juventud Rebelde newspaper. "It is investing in refineries, distilleries, electrical generation capacity; increasing storage space; and introducing high productivity sugar cutting combines," the paper said. Cuba imported 22 Mann combines from Brazil for the recent harvest. The harvest runs from December through April when the rainy season begins, but this year mills ground into June due to an unusually dry May. The Cuban harvest is more than 80 per cent mechanized and rains hamper cutting machines and trucks entering plantations. Raw sugar production was 1.5 million tonnes for the 2007-2008 harvest, compared with 1.2 million tonnes the previous harvest; refined sugar doubled to 200,000 tonnes; and molasses for animal feed increased 300 per cent, the first increases in output since the industry was downsized by more than 50 per cent in 2003. Cuba consumes a minimum of 700,000 tons of sugar per year, and 400,000 tons are destined for China (Reuters, 9/7/08).

July 9: Antigua’s Minister of Tourism Harold Lovell is looking at working with the Republic of Cuba in an exchange program to promote and enhance Antigua’s tourism industry. Speaking at a recently held press conference, Minister of Tourism Harold Lovell explained that in February 2007, a Ministry of Tourism delegation visited Cuba and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism. “Under that memorandum of understanding, we will seek to establish ways in which our experiences can be shared with Cuba and the Cuban experience can be shared with Antiguans and Barbudans,” Lovell said. “Insofar as our experience is concerned, we discovered that in the area of yachting, we are fairly well developed.” According to Lovell, they had the opportunity to visit the yacht club in Havana while a team from Cuba visited Antigua’s yacht club. During those meetings, they looked at ways in which they can help with major regattas in Cuba, similar to the Stanford Antigua Sailing Week (Antigua Sun, 9/7/08).

July 9: Cuba is deepening its main seaports to handle larger and heavier ships and trim its costs for shipping. Dredging is underway in Havana, Santiago and Cienfuegos ports, which together receive about 85 per cent of cargo imports, National Port Authority officials told the weekly business newspaper Opciones. When projects are finished next year, the three ports should average depths of 11.5 meters, or 37.7 feet. That will allow ships to carry bigger loads and let larger ships enter, cutting transport costs by at least $50 million a year from today's less efficient service by smaller and lighter vessels, Opciones reported. The newspaper did not disclose the price tag for dredging, which includes at least one contract with a Dutch firm. The projects come as cargo centers worldwide vie to accommodate a new generation of mega-ships (Sun Sentinel, 9/7/08).

July 10: The 4th Cuba-Chile Joint Intergovernmental Commission is underway in Havana. Both parties are expected to sign bilateral cooperation accords. The meeting is taking place at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation until July 11. Cuba and Chile resumed diplomatic relations in April 1995, 20 years after such links were broken following the military coup that overthrew the democratically-elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende (ACN, 10/7/08).

July 10: Jose Luis Rodriguez,Vice President of the Cuban Council of Ministers and Minister of Planning and the Economy, gave details about the progress of the government program to overhaul and expand the country’s daycare facilities as part of efforts to curb stagnant population growth levels. Luis Rodriguez addressed participants at a technical workshop sponsored by the National Statistics Office (ONE) in salute of World Population Day. He said that daycare capacities have increased by 9,300 additional spaces for the coming school year, and will continue to rise in the following years. The minister said that the daycare initiative is part of a series of new measures aimed at improving childcare and support offered to workers with children. "Today, 53 per cent of mothers have full time jobs and the challenge is to support our women so they can continue to raise families without losing the ground they have won in the labour sector" (Granma, 11/7/08).

July 11: Carlos Lage, Vice President of the Council of State and Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers, is heading the Cuban delegation attending the Fifth Summit Meeting of PETROCARIBE, to be held from July 12-13 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Also joining the Cuban delegation are Yadira García, Minister of Basic Industry; Lina Pedraza, secretariat member of the Communist Party Central Committee; Marta Lomas, Minister of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation; and Alejandro González, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. The meeting will be one more step towards the creation and implementation of a comprehensive cooperation model in the field of energy, which will cover the supply of reasonably-priced fuel, the training of human resources, the development of alternative sources of energy, as well as conservation and efficiency issues (Granma, 11/7/08).

July 11: The general secretary of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), Paraguayan Hugo Saguier-Caballero, will visit Cuba at the invitation of Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Perez Roque on July 13, according to a press release posted on the ALADI website. Saguier-Caballero and Perez Roque will meet to analyze improvements in the integration process of the region; the working schedule for the gradual and progressive establishment of a Free Trade Area; and Cuba’s role in the association. The officials will also have the chance to discuss the program of the vice-ministers meeting to be held from August 4-5 at ALADI headquarters in Montevideo (ACN, 11/7/08).

July 11: Two cooperation agreements between Cuba and Chile, aimed at strengthening relations between the two nations, were signed at the offices of the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation (MINVEC). The first, an act of the fourth Inter-Chancery Meeting, was signed by Alberto Van Klaveren, undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Chile, and by Cuban Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Alejandro González. The second document, a product of the fourth meeting of the Joint Commission of Cooperation, was signed by Cristina Lazo, General Director of Chile’s International Cooperation Agency, and by MINVEC Deputy Minister Orlando Requeijo. The group’s work allows for the identification of projects and actions for the 2008-2010 period and comprises joint efforts in sectors such as health, biotechnology, agriculture and livestock production, fisheries, mining, civil defence, and education,  in addition to covering heritage sites and historical centers, culture, sports, and trade (ACN, 11/7/08).

July 12: Venezuela and member countries of the Petrocaribe alliance, which provides low-cost financing on Venezuelan oil to the Caribbean, plan to increase natural gas production to 800 million cubic feet a day by 2014. The countries are also considering plans to build pipelines to transport natural gas from Venezuela to Suriname and Nicaragua, according to a statement on state oil company Venezuela’s PDVSA website. Representatives from Petrocaribe member countries started a two-day summit in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. Members must pay within 90 days for a portion of the oil they import from Venezuela, the biggest crude exporter in the Western Hemisphere; the remainder can be paid out over as many as 25 years at 1 per cent interest. Petrocaribe includes 17 countries across the Caribbean and Central America. Vice President Carlos Lage heads the Cuban delegation (Bloomberg, Granma, 12/7/08).

July 13: Cuba acknowledged the Venezuelan government and President Hugo Chavez for having designed, launched and boosted the Petrocaribe oil integration initiative, because of the benefit it provides to the countries of the region. Speaking at the 5th Extraordinary Summit of Petrocaribe, held in the Venezuelan region of Maracaibo, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said that the region has been privileged with the fact that Venezuela, being one of the world's largest oil producers and with the largest oil reserve in this part of the world, has launched an initiative based on strong solidarity principles. No other member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and no other country, among the large oil producers in the world, has been willing to share those benefits as Venezuela has been willing to, said Lage in his statement, as cited by Granma newspaper (Discurso de Carlos Lage en Petrocaribe; (ACN, 13/7/08).

July 13: Cuba and Venezuela will offer their experience in the Energy Revolution program to the PetroCaribe member countries, reads the Declaration of the Fifth Extraordinary Summit of PetroCaribe, which took place in Maracaibo, Venezuela. The text, read by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the final session of the event, notes that this experience will help the nations of the area to further advance in the creation of measures and policies of efficiency that contribute to the preservation and rational use of energy sources. According to Granma news daily, the PetroCaribe member countries also agreed on the creation of the Council of Ministers of Agriculture of PetroCaribe in order to pay special attention to food production. They also agreed to create a fund to finance food production initiatives in member countries in order to achieve food security. During the event, Guatemala’s membership of the bloc was approved and it was announced that the next summits of the group will take place in Saint Kitts and Nevis and in Belize (ACN, 14/7/08).

July 14: The analysis of the state of bilateral relations and the implementation of bilateral agreements are the two main objectives of the 8th Cuba-Bulgaria Intergovernmental Session that began in Havana. The delegations are headed by Ricardo Guerrero, Cuba’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, and by the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy, Yavor Kuiumdjiev. During the meeting, both delegations will discuss the possibility of expanding bilateral cooperation to the education, culture, science and energy sectors. The meeting will conclude with the signing of the Final Act of the session. Both delegations will also sign an Annex to the Agreement of Trade and Economic Cooperation and a Memorandum of Understanding between the State Agency for Information Technologies of Bulgaria and the Cuban Ministry of Communications (ACN, 15/7/08).

July 15: Cuba is looking to expand the country's oil refining capacity through a joint venture with Venezuela in the framework of solidarity, integration and cooperation between the two countries. Cuban Basic Industry Minister (Mining and Energy) Yadira Garcia Vera said that the project is being carried out in conjunction with Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and is expected to be completed in a period of three to four years, reported Juventud Rebelde newspaper. In statements to the Cuban press at the conclusion of the Fifth Extraordinary Summit of Petrocaribe, the Cuban minister spoke about the importance of the project in light of skyrocketing oil prices. She said the project would increase refining capacities in plants in the provinces of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba (ACN, 16/7/08).

July 15: The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), delivered CAD $5,450,000 to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support projects in eastern Cuba, reported sources in the UN organ. Since 2004, Canada has endorsed 109 initiatives linked to areas such as agriculture and the response to natural disasters (IPS, 15/7/08).

July 15: Plague-resistant sugar cane varieties and improved cultivation have dramatically reduced the presence of cane rust and smut in Cuban sugar plantations, boosting output, the country's top expert said. "Today we are at one of our best moments in terms of cane varieties," Ignacio Santana Aguiar, the director of the National Sugar Cane Research Center, said. Santana, interviewed by a local radio station, said 87 per cent of the country's sugar cane comes from Cuban-developed varieties to meet the country's specific conditions, compared with 47 per cent in 2001. "These varieties are more resistant to plagues and disease and mature more quickly," he said. "Four per cent of total acreage is affected by smut (carbón de caña), compared with 54 per cent in 2001. In terms of rust, we are at 15 per cent, compared with 60 per cent in 2001," he said. Cuban raw sugar output increased 24 per cent this year to 1.5 million tons, the first increase since the industry was downsized by more than 50 per cent in 2003. The sugar ministry said a similar increase is expected next year (Reuters, 15/7/08).

July 16: Mexico began negotiations with Cuba to manufacture the Cuban pentavalent vaccine and to exchange other pharmaceutical and sanitary products, said Mexican Secretary of Health José Ángel Córdova at the end of a working visit to the island. The official added that he is also contemplating a purchase of Cuban anti-retrovirals, as an option to reduce the costs of medication required to treat HIV patients (La Jornada, 17/7/08).

July 17: Cuba’s milk production plan for the first semester of 2008 surpassed its target by four per cent, a clear sign of revival in this economic sector. This increase includes deliveries made by the Ministries of Sugar and Agriculture, as well as from private producers, who supplied 60 per cent of all milk sold to the government, reported Granma. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture gathered in Havana reported that though the results are encouraging, they are still far from the volumes achieved in past decades (ACN, 17/7/08).

July 17: With some rank-and-file Cubans just beginning to get a taste of high technology, albeit still slow and very expensive, they can look forward to getting high speed Internet links in 2010, according to new documents made public. Wikileaks released documents signed in 2006 by officials from Cuba and Venezuela outlining plans to build a fibre-optic cable between the two countries. "The contract between the two countries, which has been independently verified, adds weight to Cuban statements that the United States economic embargo of the island has forced it to rely on slow and expensive satellite links for Internet connectivity," said Wikileaks investigative editor Julian Assange in the report. "Cuba is situated a mere 120 kilometres off the coast of Florida. The proposed 1,500 kilometre cable will connect Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad to the rest of the world via La Guaira, Venezuela." The cost of the Cuba-Venezuela cable was not revealed, but it is expected to be several times the cost of a cable that could be strung between Havana and Florida; the Cuban government has estimated a Havana-Florida cable would cost $500,000 (InformationWeek, 17/7/08).

July 18: President Raul Castro, looking to increase food production in socialist Cuba, has approved the lending of small amounts of additional state land to private farmers and cooperatives according to a decree published in the official media. Private farmers who have shown themselves to be productive can increase their holdings to up to 99 acres for an initial period of ten years with a possibility of renewal, said the decree published in Granma. Under land reforms put in place after the 1959 revolution, Cubans have been able to own small amounts of land. Cooperatives can add an unspecified amount of additional land for 25 years, according to the new law. The decree, which has been promised for some time by Castro, is the latest of several small reforms he has made to make Cuba's state-run economy more productive (Decreto Ley No. 259; Reuters, 18/7/08).

July 19: Cuba's state oil company, CUPET, owes Venezuela $4.6 billion for the 92,000 barrels a day the Caribbean island has received from its ally since 2005, the Caracas daily El Nacional reported. Venezuela's state-oil company PDVSA is waiting to collect the Cuban debt, along with bills yet to be paid by members of the Petrocaribe alliance that total $7.2 billion, the newspaper said (Bloomberg, 19/7/08).

July 19: The Cuban pharmaceutical industry grossed USD $350 million in 2007, moving up to the second-highest position in exports, right behind the nickel sector and surpassing traditional products such as tobacco, rum and sugar. According to the digital edition of the magazine Bohemia, “figures from of the Pharmaceutical Group of the Basic Industry Ministry, reveal that Cuba grossed approximately USD $350 million in 2007, owing to foreign sales of some 180 pharmaceuticals, between generic and biotechnology products” (EFE, 19/7/08).

July 21: As part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) agreements, Cuba and Venezuela will create a fishing company to secure fish supplies for both countries. The Venezuelan government will invest $500 million, which will be used to buy an initial ten boats—to increase the fleet to 29—as well as the fitting-out of three loading ports and the construction of shipyards and docks. Cuba’s Pescavante and the Venezuelan firm Venezolana Agraria will be part of this joint venture, which is being funded by the Financing Fund, created between China and Venezuela with more than $6 billion (ACN, 21/7/08).

July 21: Cuba’s First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura met with the General Secretary of the UN Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) Jacques Diouf in Havana. During the meeting, Diouf, who is heading an FAO delegation to Havana, addressed issues related to the serious food crisis facing the world and the need to take urgent measures in order to face the lack of food on all continents. He said each country must come up with a response to the crisis. Diouf underscored the support given by Cuba to the FAO Special Food Security Program and sent his cordial greetings to Fidel Castro (ACN, 21/7/08).

July 21: The production of biofuels is depriving the world of around 100 million tons of cereals that could go to feed the hungry, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said on a visit to Cuba. Increased oil prices and trade barriers have prompted farmers to rush to cultivate more profitable crops used for biofuels rather than for food, Jacques Diouf said in a speech at the University of Havana. "The result is nearly 100 million tons of cereals that have been removed from the food market to satisfy energy needs," he said. Diouf, who was in Cuba to study moves being made by the communist government to cope with the world food crisis, said corn and wheat outputs were being particularly hard hit. Traditional farming systems may be "radically" upended by the large and growing energy market, said Diouf, who is a fierce critic of biofuels. "The use of agricultural resources for the energy market may introduce a completely new paradigm in world agriculture," he said (AFP, 21/7/08).

July 23: Communist Cuba has begun offering private farmers equipment and other resources on credit along with more land, as President Raul Castro seeks to reform agriculture by loosening the state's grip. Just days after a government decree authorizing land grants to farmers, they are being called to meetings and asked what machinery and other inputs they need to make the best use of it. "They told us to present our requests immediately for what we need and that Venezuela, Iran and other countries had given credit to cover the resources," the treasurer of a private cooperative said in a telephone interview after attending a meeting in central Cuba. Hundreds of farmers were told at the meeting in central Cuba called by the Association of Small Farmers not to hold back on their requests. "We can ask for whatever we need. Machinery, spare parts, irrigation systems, wind mills, land clearing kits, you name it," the cooperative member said. Decision-making in the sector was recently decentralized, and redundant state-run companies merged. The state, which purchases 70-80 per cent of farm output, has doubled or even tripled the prices it pays. The remaining 20-30 per cent of production is sold on the open market. Cuba's 250,000 family farmers and 1,000 private cooperatives produce as much as state farms do on just 25 per cent the land. "We were told new farmers, state farms and state cooperatives would also get resources, but that the private sector would be treated equally and the resources granted on credit," the cooperative member said, asking that he not be identified (Reuters, 23/7/08).

July 23: Deputy Minister of Transportation Antonio Puente said that 11 more of the 100 Chinese locomotives set to revamp the country's railway system will be up and running next week, pulling cars loaded with fuel, cement, containers, food and other cargo,
reported the official daily Granma. The new locomotives are the same as the first 12 acquired from China in January 2006; another 40 will arrive in the coming months and the order will be completed by 2009. Twenty-eight Russian locomotives are also
expected to arrive this year. The Cuban government announced last December the signing of five-year contracts worth over USD $2 billion in the transportation sector. China has become the main vehicle supplier to Cuba, sending over Yutong passenger buses and cars, along with the locomotives (ACN, 23/7/08).

July 23: Jamaica stands ready to assist Cuba, as a relative newcomer to Caribbean tourism, grow its hospitality business, Edmund Bartlett said, announcing that the offer was to be formalised under an agreement with the Spanish-speaking nation. A memorandum of understanding is to be signed in Kingston next month, but Bartlett, Jamaica's minister of tourism, said he would not want to announce the details ahead of the formalities. The announcement came just ahead of Prime Minister Bruce Golding's declaration that the impracticality of the United States embargo against Cuba was glaringly obvious. "My hope is that within a short time we can see an end to the isolation of Cuba," he stated as luncheon speaker at “Cuba and its Neighbours: The Challenges of Change”, hosted by CaPRI, a University of the West Indies think tank (Jamaica Gleaner, 25/7/08).

July 24: Cuba has begun raising silkworms for the production and sale of silk, cocoons and other derivatives. This experiment, underway at the Indio Hatuey Pasture and Forage Experimental Station in central Matanzas province, constitutes a baseline study still in the evaluation phase. In statements published on the Juventud Tecnica website, project engineer Roberto Carlos Fiallo said they have already raised five generations of worms and have tested this process for two years (ACN, 24/7/08).

July 28: Russian Deputy Minister Igor Sechin plans to travel to Cuba for talks on joint energy projects, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified Russian government official. Cuba has asked Russia to review the possibility of state-owned OAO Zarubezhneft developing two onshore fields, the news service said, citing the government official. OAO Lukoil is interested in upgrading two Cuban refineries, Interfax reported, citing unidentified people in Russia's largest independent oil company. Sechin’s tentative Cuba travel dates are July 29 to August 3, the news service said (Bloomberg, 28/7/08).

July 28: After nearly two decades, Cuba is ready to resume the construction of the national highway with plans to complete three lanes in a 60 km stretch between the central provinces of Villa Clara and Sancti Spiritus by next year. Ernesto Capdet Wert, director of Villa Clara's Highway Administration Center, said authorities are evaluating the state of the unfinished road located between kilometres 260 and 320 of the highway. The construction of the national highway was halted in the late 1980s because of the severe economic crisis resulting from the fall of the Soviet Union (ACN, 28/7/08).

July 28: Cuba generates 40 per cent of its electricity with fuel oil, diesel, and natural-gas powered engines, experts of that sector said. They told the Radio Rebelde website their goal was to gradually replace inefficient thermoelectric stations and change the traditional pattern of generation and fuel consumption. Experts at the latest assembly said that fuel oil batteries next to the Maximo Gomez thermoelectric station consolidates the use of that technology in western Cuba, as part of the country's energy revolution. The power of those generators is around 518 megawatts, which should reach 977.6 megawatts and increase the use of oil-accompanying gas. So far, investments in the National Electro-Energetic System to install new generators exceed $2 million (ACN, 28/7/08).

July 28: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin is traveling to Cuba for talks on joint energy projects, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified Russian government official. Cuba has asked Russia to review the possibility of state-owned Zarubezhneft developing two onshore fields. LUKoil is interested in upgrading two Cuban refineries. Sechin, whose responsibilities include energy, was in China for energy talks (The Moscow Times, 29/7/08).

July 30: Canadian Sherritt International Corp's profit fell 39 per cent in its last quarter as weaker nickel prices and lower finished metals production more than offset record oil prices. The diversified mining and energy company also warned of higher costs at its Ambatovy nickel project in Madagascar, and said it had abandoned its four offshore oil concessions in Cuba. However, it maintained it forecasts for 2008 production of nickel and cobalt. Sherritt said it had given up its offshore oil exploration blocks in the Cuban sector of the Gulf of Mexico, due to the inability to attract a partner. Sherritt was one of several foreign companies that had signed exploration agreements with the country. On a conference call, Chief Executive Jowdat Waheed said the company's seismic testing did not make a case for drilling. "If we go ahead at this time, there is a drilling obligation for the deep sea well. And, given the seismic that we shot, we don't feel that spending $150 million at this time is merited," he said (Reuters, 30/7/08).

July 31: Russia's delegation headed by Vice Prime Minister Igor Sechin is discussing in Havana a wide range of issues related to the expansion of trade-economic relations between Cuba and Russia. On the first day of the visit, Sechin, who co-chairs the Russia-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission, met Executive Secretary of the Cuban Council of Ministers Carlos Lage and held talks with Minister of Communications Ramiro Valdés and Minister of the Government Ricardo Cabrisas, who heads the commission from the Cuban side. The two sides are discussing projects which "will signify a new stage in cooperation between the two countries in the trade-economic sphere," Russian Ambassador to Cuba Mikhail Kamynin told the press in an interview. According to the Russian ambassador, "it is very important that working groups on specific directions have been created by decisions of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Commission that convene in various ministries of Cuba." The two countries' officials are considering the development of cooperation in the spheres of energy, tourism, transport, the ore mining industry, agriculture, and banking (Itar Tass, 31/7/08).