Cuba is betting on the improvement of retail trade at the municipal level to strengthen the management of services and gastronomy from the territories, the Ministry of Domestic Trade informed here today.

Presenting before the National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament) the progress of the process of transformations in that area, the head of that portfolio, Betsy Díaz, said that 2022 was characterized by the realization of structural changes in enterprises and the reorganization of its workforce.

Of the 48 tasks foreseen in the work schedule, 18 (38 percent) have been completed, 25 (52 percent) are in progress, and five (10 percent) are on schedule, said Díaz in her speech at the tenth ordinary session of the legislative body.

The selection and training of managers and human resources involved in the process, the diversification of offers, higher quality of services and the completion of the improvement of the municipal enterprise remain priorities, she referred.

The retail network has 23,215 state-owned establishments, of which 73 percent sell merchandise, 21 percent sell gastronomy and six percent provide services.

Five thousand 395 service and gastronomic establishments operate through non-state forms of management, four thousand 102 of them as a result of the policy of leasing premises implemented in 2009, and one thousand 261 were approved for this year’s bidding.

At the meeting, the official informed that the program for the maintenance and transformation of services in warehouses has allowed the recovery of 3,796 establishments, 31 percent of the total network.

She also pointed out that 99.7 percent of the 675 Consumer Registry offices have been computerized, which allows them to be updated and purged through interaction with the Citizen’s Single Card.