"The tours the candidates made to exchange with the population were rich experiences that left a lot of learning that will lead to changing the approach to work on the country’s most pressing problems,” said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers.
His reflections were made after the presentation of the first item of the agenda, which dealt with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance and Prices to increase the actions aimed at regulating and confronting the currently abusive prices; an issue that was the "most raised by the population in these meetings", said the Head of State.
“We are not going to solve the current inflation with these measures alone. However, we can put an end to abuse, to speculation; we can put a stop to the people profiting from this situation and who act without conscience, without commitment towards the population, disdaining the effort being made."
The President recalled how in many of these exchanges "very dramatic things were said. Even elderly people who have been contributing all their lives to the construction and development of the country complain that whenever they pointed out that a price was abussive, they were scorned by the seller.”
"It cannot be allowed in this society. It was not for what the Revolution was made. It cannot be allowed, and we have to face this problem in a more energetic way," Díaz-Canel stressed at the meeting presided over by Political Bureau member and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz.
The real solution, he reiterated, is to increase production, and that is also the direction we are going to take: to increase production, to have more goods and services on offer, and to ensure that wages have greater purchasing power. For now, he emphasized, we must confront "those who abuse, those who speculate and those who at outside the law."
“This is everybody’s task in the country,” the President insisted, "the fight must be carried out at the level of the municipality, in each community," and those involved in this fight must be well trained and prepared so this action is carried out systematically and rigorously, without arrogance, with arguments, with the truth and with the support of the people.
“To the same extent that we act,” he said, “the population will have more confidence and will tell us where speculation is taking place and who is doing it.” Hence his emphasis on linking the actions with the popular control and all its forms support the confrontation.
Díaz-Canel also spoke about the work that the Party must carry out in the political assurance of this fight, and the responsibility of the main leaders in each territory to be responsible for the fight against illegalities, because "we are servants of the people, and we work for the people."
IT’S IMPERATIVE TO CONTROL PRICES
According to the explanation by Minister of Finance and Prices Meisi Bolaños Weiss, the complexities that currently mark the Cuban context place greater importance to the implementation of highly-transforming actions in terms of price control, the improvement of contracting and agreement processes, and the confrontation of abusive prices that affect the population.
Price violations, he said, are present both in high-impact products and in social consumption, and have been detected both in state entities and in non-state forms of management. He also pointed out that the inspection actions carried out in 2022 were insufficient.
“Among other actions,” he said, “it is intended to further monitor the effect of agreements and avoid the existence of intermediaries. At this time of high inflation,” Bolaños Weiss said, “we need to produce more, but also to control more.”
In the same way, she explained that the objective is to strengthen the link between the budgeted entities and the productive forms at the time of agreeing prices; to prepare the economic actors in relation to the formation and demonstration of prices, creating conditions for control and maintaining a permanent monitoring of the population's complaints.
The most important thing, according to the Minister, is to accompany the people, from the responsibility of the local organizations and structures, to face the abuse and to play the role that corresponds to each one, but above all, with the effectiveness that is required.
Reflecting on this matter, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz insisted on the importance of constant follow-up on the issue, since it is inconceivable that, given that the issue of abusive prices is one of the main concerns of the population, "it is still something that we do not control and inspections are minimal".
Aware that there is no single formula to solve this problem, the Prime Minister drew attention to the production reserves that exist in the different municipalities and the need to take advantage of them in order to provide greater benefits to the population.
CUBAN ECONOMY AT THE END OF FEBRUARY
As usual in the meetings of the highest government body, the Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil Fernández reported on the behavior of the Cuban economy at the end of February, a period in which a slight growth in exports of goods was observed, although the levels of activity were lower than in previous years.
“Particularly, on tourism services that have a key role in the recovery process of the economy, the also Vice Prime Minister stressed that in the period of analysis it equally shows a gradual recovery, although still far from the figures reached in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“At the end of February,” he said, “488,730 visitors had arrived in the country, of which 239,477 did so in the second month of the year. This accumulated figure represents 90.6% of the designed plan,” he added.
In the case of commercial circulation, a figure that has been growing in the first two months of 2023, Gil Fernández considered that this does not mean that the demand for goods and services of the population is satisfied. In this regard, he commented on the level of inflation in the country, which has several causes, such as the increase in import prices, inefficient production and speculation.
“All of this is closely related to what was analyzed in the previous point of the agenda, hence the need to work to solve problems of inefficiency and idle productive capacity that we have in the country, many times due to lack of financing and others due to lack of management to find the sources of supply and put all our industry and all the capacity installed in it into production".
"That continues to be one of the most complex problems we have to face. We have not been able to contain inflation and to seek greater parity between wage growth and price growth, in such a way that we manage to maintain the purchasing power of wages at a stable level," he said.
Among other priority issues that must be resolved in the economy, Gil Fernández emphasized on the need to ensure compliance with the foreign currency income foreseen in the plan, increase national productions, and continue the purchase of some national food productions with foreign currency that had initially been dedicated to imports and is now invested in the country, a measure he described as "a revolutionary and audacious."
Once again, he called attention to the over-compliance of the plans of several companies, which is not always associated with greater efficiency or productivity, since there are still many reserves that are not sufficiently exploited, in order to advance with greater agility in the gradual recovery of the economy.
EXPORT OF GOODS AND SERVICES, AND FOREIGN TRADE
As part of the agenda of this meeting Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz informed about the implementation of the Integral Strategy for exports of goods and services by the end of 2022, whose use continues to be an "indispensable tool to promote the strengthening of alliances and linkages among all economic actors, as well as the identification of obstacles, limitations and difficulties to alert and influence in a timely manner in their solution," he said.
It is essential, he said, to promote greater diversification of exports, which not only contributes to increasing the country's foreign exchange earnings, but also opens the doors to other markets.
In order to achieve a greater involvement and knowledge of producers in these issues, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment informed that different training processes are being held.
Even though there are many reserves that are not taken advantage of in this sense, and the results that the country needs are not achieved, Malmierca Díaz highlighted how the Strategy has significantly contributed to the consolidation of alliances between sectors; it has allowed the promotion of productive linkages between the different economic actors and with the territories, in which the development of productive exporting poles has been boosted; and new business models have been created, with a greater diversification of exportable products.
Speaking on this point, the Prime Minister said that this issue has also been evaluated in the tours of the territories, and the assessment is that there are still many export reserves among the producers.
We already have the structures in the territories, he said, but we must continue preparing them. There has to be a much more intense, intentional work to continue identifying exportable items that allow the foreign currency income that the country needs, to be used later in more production.
He emphasized that all the agencies of the Central Administration of the State, the higher organizations of Business Management, the companies and the territories should look inward and review what else can be exported.
Another issue that the Council of Ministers is systematically following up on is the economic damages caused to the country by irregularities in Foreign Trade operations, an issue in which, according to the Minister, the Council of Ministers has a more active role to play in order to eliminate the deficiencies that still persist.
Taking into account the negative repercussion that this reality has on the performance of the Cuban economy, Malmierca Díaz insisted on the need for the different agencies of the Central State Administration and the national entities to review in depth the procedures established to deal with this issue at all levels.
CUBA AND ITS PEOPLE
Very low fertility levels, low mortality levels,which is explained by the overmortality in 2021, as a result of the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a sustained negative external migratory balance, are three elements that distinguish the demographic situation in Cuba at the end of 2022. This was presented to the members of the Council of Ministers by Juan Carlos Alonso Fraga, deputy chief of the National Statistics and Information Office.
In general, he said, the population decreased in 13 provinces and in the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud. Only Artemisa and Havana grew overall. In the country, he said, the population continues to decrease naturally; there are more deaths than births, although the amount is significantly lower than in 2021.
After a detailed explanation of the country's demographic situation and the results achieved with the Policy for the Attention to Demographic Dynamics in 2022, Alonso Fraga commented on several actions that will be implemented to improve it, and in which governors and mayors, who are in charge of the implementation and follow-up of this Policy in the territories, have a leading role.
The Prime Minister drew attention to the need to pay particular attention to rural communities, where the situation is very different from that in the urban areas of the country. In the countryside, he said, the level of aging of the population is very high, and there are very big problems. He recalled that the Council of Ministers addressed, in its previous working session, the program for the revaluation of rural areas in Cuba to solve these problems.
In his intervention, he commented on the need to carry out actions to bring the main services closer to the population of these localities, where the warehouses are the places where their inhabitants regularly meet. He also referred to the possibility of bringing to these places outpatient offices to carry out procedures and thus prevent the population from moving unnecessarily.
The Prime Minister spoke, among other aspects, of the priority attention to be given to young people; of guaranteeing care for the elderly, especially those who live alone, and of implementing differentiated actions in the most complex communities.
Taking into account the priority that this issue has for the development of the nation, Marrero Cruz indicated to carry out deep, critical and self-critical analyses at the territorial level, on the situation of the demographic policy in all its aspects.
After his reflections, the members of the Council of Ministers approved the document presented, of which the Prime Minister said has to become "an instrument of reference, follow-up and control."
The agenda of this governmental meeting also included the approval of the Policy for the granting of awards. As explained by Minister of Justice Oscar Silvera Martínez, this document aims at ordering the delivery of awards associated with monetary remuneration or other material good, which guarantee to continue stimulating contributions in the fileds of economy and society, based on hierarchy, rationality and austerity in their conception, creation and delivery.
NATIONAL ELECTIONS AND THE SUPPORT OF OUR PEOPLE TO THE REVOLUTION
As reported by the media a few days ago, the results of the national elections, held on Sunday, March 26, were also analyzed in this meeting.
A message of "respect, admiration and much affection" was conveyed on Wednesday, April 5 by the President of the Republic to the Cuban people, on behalf of the Council of Ministers, the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the Central Committee, all present that day.
In his remarks, the Head of State singled out the "heroic Cuban people" as the main protagonists of this victory, who deserve all our recognition for their courage, their dignity and their loyalty. "We are going to serve with passion, with commitment, without reluctance, to the last consequences," he said.
Assessing these results, Díaz-Canel said, it is essential to take into account three essential elements: the significance of the victory; the lessons learned from the process, with an approach without complacency for the victory, and the priorities tht should follo up the process.
In the debate, the member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla evaluated the result as extraordinary, "which confirms the strength of the Revolution, the strength of the Party and the overwhelmingly revolutionary majority that supports socialism in Cuba."
From the international point of view, he stressed, although our political system was questioned, "there is no choice, even for the enemy, but to recognize that these data show that there is no electoral system, nor electoral results like these on the planet."
Translated by ESTI
