The evaluation of the fulfilment of the guidelines of the economic and social policy of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2021-2026, as well as the lines of work for its promotion and control, were approved by the 6th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba on Tuesday afternoon at the Palace of the Revolution.
A "critical and fair analysis in the right framework " was developed after an almost five hour-long session, as described by the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, who stated that, despite what has been done, the results expected by the people have not yet been achieved.
The session was led by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, as well as the president of the National Assembly of People's Power, Esteban Lazo Hernández; the Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, Roberto Morales Ojeda, and the Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa, among other members of the Political Bureau.
The member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party and head of its Economic Department, Joel Queipo Ruiz, presented the Evaluation of the fulfillment of the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2021-2026. Member of the Central Committee and deputy prime minister, Alejandro Gil Fernandez followed with a review of the status of the implementation of these until the end of 2022, with some updates until April.
Queipo Ruiz recalled that the 8th CCP Congress, held in April 2021, "instructed the Central Committee to promote, control and demand the Updating of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development; and its Plenary to analyze with the required periodicity the performance of the economy, the implementation of the Guidelines and the fulfilment of the National Plan for Economic and Social Development until 2030".
Evaluating the fulfilment of the Guidelines is one of the objectives of the visits by the Secretariat and the auxiliary structure of the Central Committee to the provinces, he informed.
He also said that, despite designing a system of macro-programs, programs and projects for the implementation and fulfilment of the Guidelines, "the results achieved do not meet what is needed to guarantee economic and social development".
Queipo Ruiz stressed that the economic, commercial and financial blockade by the United States Government, which has intensified in recent years,", "is the greatest obstacle, but at the same time there are few innovative proposals to minimize its impact, and there are still problems and a lack of initiatives that delay the expected results".
The Head of the Economic Department of the Secretariat of the Central Committee said that, as a result of the meetings in the provincial bureaus problems, criteria and dissatisfactions were addressed and several proposals for solutions to the current economic situation were also made.
Going deeper into the results of the debate process on the ten most mentioned guidelines, he indicated that "90 585 proposals were made, of which 51.4% belong to the nuclei of the Party of centers responsible for implementing them; that is, with an inward and self-critical look, and the other 48.6% belonged to the rest of the centers, looking outward".
However, this was not equal in all the Guidelines, in the case of number 118, "related to the Policy for the commercialization of agricultural products, only 40.1 % of the points belong to the Party nuclei of the centers responsible for its concretion, which points to the need to turn the nuclei into real action units that promote, with their actions, demands and control, the effective implementation of the Guidelines".
Regarding the lines of work for the Party’s promotion and control of the Guidelines approved in the 8th Congress, the member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee said that their objective is to establish them in all the structures of the Party and the militancy, in such a way that "they influence on how to do things differently, and with impact on the causes and conditions that limit the advance of each sector of the economy".
After announcing the lines of work, which were also approved by the 6th Plenary Session of the Central Committee, Queipo Ruiz said that "they favor the differentiated political attention of the main activists to the grassroots organizations of centers that decide on the economic and social life of the territories, as well as the permanent exchange with militants, young people and the population, for which the preparation of cadres must be strengthened".
In this regard, he recalled the words of the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, at the closing of the 8th Congress, when he said: "To achieve these objectives it is essential to strengthen the dynamics of the Party's functioning and the proactivity of its militancy to the most pressing problems facing society, under the premise that, as a single Party, ours will always have the challenge of being increasingly more democratic, more attractive, closer to the people as a whole and not only in their immediate environment".
STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GUIDELINES
Reporting on the status of implementation of the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2021-2026, approved in the 8th Congress, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernandez, said that, according to the last closing, of the 201 guidelines, 13 are without progress and 67 have a low progress, so that both categories gather about 40%; while 110 have a medium progress (54.7%) and 11 have a high progress (5.4%).
We are halfway through the implementation of the Guidelines for the period 2021-2026, but their behavior can not only be seen in these classifications, but also in the country's day-to-day life, said Gil Fernández.
In a critical evaluation of the behavior of the economy, the Deputy Prime Minister referred to the lack of the expected and needed results in national production -such as agro-industrial-, exports of goods and services, foreign investment and efficiency in the investment process, among others.
The same applies to macroeconomic stabilization, one of the most complex aspects to be achieved, and whose effects are expressed in the high levels of inflation, price distortion, loss of purchasing power of salaries and pensions, and currency depreciation in the informal exchange rate, among other negative consequences.
In his presentation to the VI Plenary Session of the Central Committee, Gil Fernandez elaborated on the 13 guidelines without progress (numbers 117, 118, 121, 122, 124, 129, 130, 146, 147, 148, 165, 166 and 186), mostly related to agri-food production.
Although the implementation of the Guidelines does not yet match the needs of the country and the demands of the population, he also praised the measures aimed at implementing the most advanced ones, such as the reestablishment of the foreign exchange market (despite the negative impact of the informal market), the gradual implementation of the improvement of the state enterprise (such as the creation of subsidiaries and state micro and SME's), the decentralization of the salary system (to which more than 500 enterprises have already adhered), as well as the progress made in the classification of the state businesses and the Business Law.
On a positive note, the Minister of Economy and Planning informed that in late April there were 285 businesses in losses in the country, but a year and a half ago there were some 500 in this state. He acknowledged, however, that among those that are still in losses, some have this condition, not because of a proven inefficiency, but because they have centrally capped prices, an issue that has been resolved for some that now report profits, although -he said- this decision has led to a price increase being passed on to the product.
Gil Fernandez highlighted advances in Guidelines connected to science and innovation, government and e-commerce, Health and Education services after entering the post-pandemic phase of COVID-19; the transformation actions in more than one thousand neighborhoods, the increase of compensatory measures for vulnerable people and families and in other social areas.
While comprehensively weighing the implementation of the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2021-2026, he said that in this process "we are halfway, but we are not on the right track; we must close ranks and speed up the pace".
He referred to the difficulties in increasing production amid macroeconomic imbalance and vice versa. However, he pointed to the reserves that exist in the country. And we are advancing -he said- towards favoring the increase of national production, sustainable foreign currency earning and measures which help promptly increase the supply of goods and services to the population.
TO DISCUSSION
The state of compliance with the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy was submitted for discussion by the members of the Central Committee of the Party in its 6th Plenary Session, in which there were interventions from representatives of territories, ministries, academia and other areas.
Betsy Díaz Velázquez, member of the Central Committee and head of the Internal Trade portfolio, addressed the guidelines related to trade, gastronomy and professional and technical services, areas in which the population has great dissatisfaction and in which, first of all, high prices are expressed, she acknowledged.
However, she stressed, we have not stood idly by and there are many things to do, including acting with much more vehemence and without contemplation against those who violate norms and rights.
Member of the Central Committee and Minister of Communications, Mayra Arevich Marín, spoke about the implementation of the Guidelines for this sector. She commented, not without recognizing the limitations, on results, such as the increase in telephone density, with more than 7.4 million mobile and digital telephone subscribers, the fact that 68% of the population (6.6 million people) have access to the Internet, the digital transformation processes and other issues such as the quality of Internet service, which must be gradually improved.
Academician Carlos César Torres Páez, member of the Central Committee, while recognizing that the blockade is the main obstacle for the development of the country, criticized the lack of persistence to face this permanent and intensified aggression from creativity, innovation, systematization to implement more the use of knowledge and the use of expert knowledge.
He also referred, among other issues, to the need to promote, demand and control, from the nuclei of the Party, the fulfillment of everything that impacts on the implementation of the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution approved in the 8th Congress.
No isolated measure -he added- will produce the results that are needed, so it is also necessary a deep integral transformation, without waving the essence of the Cuban socialist model.
We still have many limitations, Torres Paez stated, for whom advancing in the refining of the economic model requires a substantive change in the conception of the Plan of the Economy and the allocation of resources, as well as in current structures, such as the higher organizations of business management, strengthening the territory, the municipality.
The Comptroller General of the Republic, Gladys Bejerano Portela, member of the Central Committee, highlighted that all the issues discussed in the Plenary are in the documents of the Party Congress, so what is necessary is to focus on complying with what was agreed and to do it with quality and efficiency.
The main issue is to produce, if we do not produce we are not going to move forward, she stressed.
The member of the Political Bureau and head of the Government, Manuel Marrero Cruz, after an evaluation of the causes that are affecting the economic take-off the population needs and demands, emphasized that, in spite of them, things can be done, so we have to focus on doing everything that depends on us
