Photo: Revolution Studies.

"All the learning that we had in the journeys that the candidates made, everything that came out in that rich exchange with the population, has to take us to a different moment of work based on the most pressing problems that we have in our country," assessed the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, during the most recent meeting of the Council of Ministers.

His reflections were motivated by the presentation of the first item on the agenda, referring to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance and Prices to increase the actions aimed at regulating and confronting the abusive prices that are currently manifested, an issue that, he said the Head of State, was the "most raised by the population in these meetings."

We have inflation, he assessed, that we are not going to solve with these measures alone, "but we can put an end to abuse, speculation, taking advantage of the situation by a group of people who act without conscience, without commitment towards the population, disdaining the effort that is made”.

The president recalled how in many of these exchanges "very dramatic things were said, including elderly people who have been contributing throughout their lives to the construction of the country, to development, and complain that any seller, selling at abusive prices, he despises when they tell him that the price of a product is high”.

“That cannot be allowed in this society;

the Revolution was not made for that.

It cannot be allowed, and we must go more energetically to solve the problem,” Díaz-Canel stressed at the meeting, which was led by the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz.

The real solution, he reiterated, is that we produce more, and that is also where we are going to go: producing more, having more offers of goods and services, and ensuring that wages have greater purchasing power.

But now, he emphasized, it is necessary to go to a confrontation "against those who abuse, against those who speculate and against the illegals."

Precisely because this is a task for everyone in the country, the President insisted that the "fight must be done at the municipal level, in each community", and prepare well all those who will be involved, so that it is an action systematic, rigorous, to which it goes 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 the places where speculation is taking place are and who does it.

Hence its emphasis on linking the actions with popular control and that 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 combat, as well as the responsibility that the main cadres of each territory have to answer for the fight against illegalities, because “we are servants of the people, and we work for the people”.

The imperative to control prices

Photo: Revolution Studies.

According to the explanation made by the Minister of Finance and Prices, Meisi Bolaños Weiss, the complexities that currently distinguish the Cuban context give greater importance to the implementation of actions that can be as transformative as possible in terms of control of the prices, the improvement of contracting and agreement processes, as well as the confrontation with abusive prices that affect the population.

Price violations, he said, are present both in high-impact products and in social consumption and it has been possible to detect the same in state entities as in forms of non-state management.

Likewise, he highlighted how insufficient the inspection actions carried out were in 2022.

Among other actions, he said, it is intended to monitor more the effect of the agreements and avoid the existence of intermediaries.

At this time of high inflation, Bolaños Weiss considered, we need to produce more, but also control more.

In the same way, he explained that it seeks to increase the link between the budgeted entities with the productive forms when agreeing prices;

prepare the economic actors in what refers to the formation and demonstration of prices, creating conditions for control;

and maintain permanent monitoring of the population's complaints.

The most important thing here, the minister considered, is to accompany the people, from the responsibility that local organizations and structures have to confront abuse, and each one to play their corresponding role, but above all with the effectiveness that is demanded.

When reflecting on this matter, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, insisted on the importance of constantly monitoring the issue, since it is not conceivable that, since the issue of abusive prices is one of the main proposals of the population, "it is still something that we do not control and where 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 based on greater benefits for the population.

Cuban economy at the end of February

Photo: Revolution Studies.

As usual in 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 can be seen of goods, although activity levels are lower than those of previous years.

In particular regarding tourist services, which play a key role in the recovery process of the economy, the Deputy Prime Minister also highlighted that a gradual recovery was also manifested in the analysis period, although still far from the figures reached in the previous year. 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.

That accumulated represents 90.6% of the designed plan, he explained.

In the case of mercantile circulation, a figure that has been growing in the first two months of 2023, Gil Fernández considered that this does not mean that the population's demand for goods and services is satisfied.

In this regard, he commented on the level of inflation that is manifested in the country and has several causes, including the increase in import prices, inefficient production and speculation.

All this, he valued, is closely related to what was analyzed in the previous point, hence the need to work to "solve problems of inefficiency and idle productive capacity that we have in the country, often due to lack of financing and other times due to lack of management to find the sources of supply and put our entire industry and all the capacity installed in it to production”.

“This continues to be one of the most complex problems we have to face and we have not been able to contain inflation and seek greater parity between wage growth and price growth, in such a way that we can maintain the capacity of purchase of salary ”, he valued.

Among other priority issues that must be resolved in the economy, Gil Fernández emphasized the need to ensure compliance with the foreign currency income provided for in the plan;

increase national productions;

and to continue the purchase of some national food products, with foreign currency that had initially been dedicated to imports and is now invested in the country, which he described as "a bold and revolutionary measure."

Once again, he drew attention to the overcompliance that is observed in the plans of several companies and is not always associated with greater efficiency or productivity, since there are still many reserves that are not sufficiently used to move more quickly in the gradual recovery of the economy.

Export of goods and services and foreign trade

Photo: Revolution Studies.

As part of the agenda for this meeting, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, reported on the implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for exports of goods and services by the end of 2022, the use of which, he assured, continues to be a "Indispensable tool to promote the strengthening of alliances and linkages between all economic actors, as well as the identification of obstacles, limitations and difficulties to alert and influence their solution in a timely manner."

It is essential, he considered, to promote greater diversification of exports, which not only contributes to increasing the country's foreign currency earnings, but also opens the doors to other markets.

To achieve greater involvement and knowledge of producers on these issues, said the head of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, that different training processes are carried out.

Even though there are many reserves that are not used in this sense and the results that the country needs are not achieved, Malmierca Díaz highlighted how the Strategy has contributed significantly to the consolidation of alliances between sectors;

it has allowed the promotion of the productive chain between the different economic actors and with the territories, in which the development of export productive poles has been promoted;

and new business models have been created, with greater diversification of exportable products.

When intervening on this point, the Prime Minister said that this issue has also been evaluated in tours of the territories and the appreciation is that there are still many export reserves among producers.

We already have the structures in the territories, he pointed out, but we must continue to prepare them, there must be much more intense, intentional work to continue identifying exportable items that allow for the foreign currency income that the country needs to later use in more production.

For this reason, its emphasis is that all the agencies of the Central State Administration, the superior organizations of Business Management, the companies and the territories take a look inward and review what else we can export.

Another issue that the Council of Ministers systematically monitors is the economic effects caused to the country by irregularities in foreign trade operations, an issue in which, as reflected by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, corresponds to that organism a more active role 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 national entities to review in depth the procedures established for attention to the issue to all levels.

Cuba and its people

Photo: Revolution Studies.

Very low fertility levels;

low levels of mortality —which is explained by the excess mortality that manifested itself 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 head of the National Statistics and Information Office.

In general, he said, the population decreased in 13 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud;

only Artemisa and Havana grew fully.

In the country, he pointed out, the population continues to decrease naturally - there are more deaths than births - although the amount is significantly less than in 2021.

After making a detailed explanation about the demographic situation of the country and what results have been achieved with the application of the Policy for Attention to Demographic Dynamics in the year 2022, Alonso Fraga commented on several actions that will be implemented to improve it and in which A leading role corresponds to governors and mayors, who are most responsible for the application and monitoring of this Policy in the territories.

On this subject, the Prime Minister drew attention to the need to pay particular attention to rural communities, where the situation differs greatly from that seen in the country's urban areas.

In the countryside, he noted, the level of aging of the population is very high and there are very big problems, and precisely to solve them, he recalled that the Council of Ministers addressed the program of the Revaluation of rurality in Cuba in its previous work session .

In his speech, he commented on the need to carry out actions that allow the different services to be increasingly brought closer to the population of these towns, which have the center of confluence of their inhabitants in the wineries.

Likewise, he referred to the possibility of taking outpatient offices to those places to carry out procedures and thus prevent the population from moving unnecessarily.

The Prime Minister spoke, among other aspects, of the prioritized care that should be given to young people;

to guarantee the care of the elderly, especially those who live alone;

and to implement actions in a differentiated manner in the most complex communities.

Taking into account the priority that this issue has for the development of the nation, Marrero Cruz indicated carrying out in-depth, critical and self-critical analyzes at the territorial level on the situation of demographic policy in all its aspects.

After their reflections, the members of the Council of Ministers approved the document presented, which, said the Prime Minister, must become "a reference, monitoring and control instrument".

The agenda of this government meeting also included the approval of the Policy for the granting of Awards.

As explained by Oscar Silvera Martínez, Minister of Justice, this document aims to order the delivery of prizes associated with monetary remuneration or other material goods, which guarantee to continue stimulating contributions in the spheres of the economy and society, based on the hierarchy, rationality and austerity in its conception, creation and delivery.

National elections and the support of our people for the Revolution

Photo: Revolution Studies.

As our media reported a few days ago, an analysis was also made at this meeting of the Council of Ministers on the results of the National Elections held on Sunday, March 26.

A message of "respect, admiration and much affection" was transmitted last Wednesday 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 at the working day.

In his words, the Head of State meant that it is the "heroic Cuban people", as the main protagonist of this victory, who deserves all our recognition for their courage, for their dignity, for their fidelity.

"We are going to serve with passion, with commitment, without reluctance, until the last consequences," he asserted.

To make an assessment of these results, Díaz-Canel considered, it is essential to take into account three essential elements: the significance of the victory;

the learning that derives from the process, with an approach without complacency for victory;

and the priorities with which the process should be followed up.

During the debate, the member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Relations, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, evaluated the result obtained 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, even if they want to question our political system, "there is no other choice, even for the enemy, than to recognize that these data show that there is no electoral system, nor electoral results like these on the planet."