En este momento estás viendo Government Programme to correct distortions and boost the economy by 2025 approved
Este Programa de Gobierno está compuesto por objetivos, proyecciones, acciones, indicadores y metas, cronograma con fechas de cumplimiento y responsables. Foto: Estudios Revolución / This Government Programme is made up of objectives, projections, actions, indicators and goals, a chronogram with compliance dates and responsible parties. Photo: Estudios Revolución

Government Programme to correct distortions and boost the economy by 2025 approved

It contains a detailed action plan for its implementation, with special emphasis on the new mechanism for the management, control and allocation of foreign exchange for all economic actors; the implementation of the foreign exchange market; and the partial dollarisation of the economy.

Manuel Marrero Cruz, member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, defined the Government Programme to correct distortions and relaunch the economy during the year 2025, approved by the members of the Council of Ministers at this year’s first meeting of the highest governing body, which was headed by the First Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, as a «transversal theme, which includes all the essences and policies of the country’s economic and social life».

In presenting the main elements that define the Programme, the Head of Government recalled that in the Council of Ministers held last December, the proposals for objectives and projections, the work system and the steps for its elaboration were presented and approved.

The fact, he said, allows us to broaden the scope of the actions and move from Government Projections to this Government Programme, which is made up of objectives, projections, actions, indicators and goals, a timetable with dates for compliance and those responsible.

There were many previous exchanges, at all levels, before reaching this moment, said Marrero Cruz, who also highlighted the contribution that the different considerations and recommendations received, as well as the application of science and the results of research, had made to enrich the Programme.

What was approved by the Council of Ministers contains a detailed plan of actions for its implementation, placing special emphasis on the new mechanism for the management, control and allocation of foreign currency for all economic actors; the implementation of the foreign exchange market, and the partial dollarisation of the economy.

These projections, said Marrero Cruz, are vital for progress on the rest of the Government Programme, especially because of their impact on two key objectives: «Increasing and diversifying the country’s external income» and «Increasing national production, with emphasis on foodstuffs».

In general terms, he stressed the importance of consolidating a system of «work that allows us sustainability in the monitoring and control of what we have planned», and for this it is essential to have a constant analysis at all levels, fundamentally of the progress of the measures that have the greatest impact on the population and the communities.

The first topic of the meeting – as has been customary since last year – was dedicated to assessing the state of implementation of the Government Projections to correct distortions and boost the economy in 2024 and January 2025.

In general terms, the First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, Mildrey Granadillo de la Torre, said that of the 101 projections contained in the Action Plan to fulfil the eight objectives, 51 have been approved and are in the process of implementation, including the development of social programmes such as those associated with attention to demographic dynamics, the advancement of women, and attention to children, adolescents and youth.

Specifically in 2025, he detailed that, among other issues, progress was made in the analysis of proposals to strengthen the attributes of the Mariel Special Development Zone, as a place to attract foreign direct investment; the proposed procedure for the implementation of the Resolution of the Ministry of Domestic Trade on trade activity by non-state economic actors was presented, as well as the follow-up, due to its importance, to the implementation of the new mechanism for management, control and allocation of foreign exchange and the proposal for the official exchange market.

CONTINUITY OF STUDIES PLAN

As part of the meeting’s agenda, the Plan for the continuity of studies for graduates of the ninth grade, pre-university and other sources was approved, with the participation of the territorial governments, the provincial commissions for the training and employment of qualified labour force, and the training and advisory bodies.

As a basis for the design of the plan, the following elements were taken into account, among others: the Comprehensive Policy on Children, Adolescents and Youth; the guarantee of continuity of studies for all graduates; the demand for graduates for the development of investments and the export of services in the health sector, as well as the government’s projection to improve the planning process for the training and distribution of the skilled workforce with the training organisations.

According to the above

the meeting:

  • 109 891 places were planned, of which 47 % are for pre-university education, which are generally increasing in relation to the previous academic year, although decreasing in provinces such as Ciego de Avila, Las Tunas and Santiago de Cuba, as well as in the special municipality Isla de la Juventud.
  • In the structure of entry to technical and vocational education, 49,280 places are for middle-level technical specialisations and 8,795 for skilled workers.
  • The allocation of places favours the priority sectors of the food, health, construction, electro-energy, tourism, pharmaceuticals and railways programmes.
  • For the daytime higher education course, 54,547 places have been earmarked for higher education and higher technical courses.
  • For the higher technician, 12,457 places are planned for higher management bodies, agencies and organisations, 77% of which are concentrated in the Ministry of Public Health, with a total of 22 courses.
  • In the case of teaching and medical science careers, although there is a decrease of 5% compared to the previous period, they make up 59% of the total number of higher education vacancies to be offered.

This, said the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, who was responsible for presenting the issue, guarantees continuity of studies for all ninth grade graduates, and more than one option to continue studies in higher education for all pre-university graduates, while at the same time providing a better match between the training of the skilled workforce and the needs of the territories.

On the subject, the Minister of Higher Education, Walter Baluja García, considered that it has a direct impact on the development of the nation. «A country that is committed to a system of government management based on science and innovation has to bet in the medium and long term on an increase in the enrolment of young people in universities.

In this regard, he drew attention to a group of factors associated with the socio-economic reality of the country, the blockade, the passage of the pandemic and others, which have deteriorated the rate of enrolment, which also influences aspects such as academic efficiency.

One of the greatest challenges facing the Cuban education system, he said, is to carry out «vocational and professional orientation work that will allow us to increase the number of students who intend to enter and will enter higher education in the coming years».

OTHER ISSUES ON THE AGENDA

At the meeting, in which the members of the Council of Ministers also approved the Plan of issues to be analysed this year, both in the governing body itself and in its Executive Committee, the Prime Minister referred, among other matters, to the development of the municipal assemblies of People’s Power to discuss the Economic Plan and the State Budget for this year.

In these meetings, he stressed, despite the work done, there are still shortcomings that we are in time to correct and clarify. In this regard, he pointed out that not all the plans and budgets presented clearly define the alignment with the municipal development strategy; the maintenance and repair plans do not always take into account the proposals of the constituents, as well as the actions to continue working in the neighbourhoods undergoing transformation.

And although in many cases it is satisfactory that actions have been included to increase income and also to reduce expenses, they are not always reflected in the search for greater production based on the potential of the territories to satisfy the demands of the population.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE UNDER DEBATE

At the end of the meeting of the Council of Ministers, in which the main leaders of the Party and the Government from all the territories participated via videoconference, the head of Communications, Mayra Arevich Marín, presented the Strategy for the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cuba, which is part of the country’s Digital Transformation Policy.

Ethics and regulatory framework, human capital, its applications and services, public administration, science and innovation, and social communication make up the six main axes of the Cuban strategy, which proposes in its projections the gradual and growing incorporation of AI in everyday processes, prioritising those that impact on the economy and social welfare, with responsibility and managing the ethical challenges involved in its use and development.

Despite the many challenges involved in the development of ia, especially for a country with the economic limitations that Cuba has, the President of the Republic emphasised the priority that must be given to its development, always based on a preparation that involves its appropriate, revolutionary and innovative use.

In this regard, he insisted on the importance of clearly defining «how each organisation and each institution is presenting in concrete terms what it is doing in terms of digital transformation and what it is doing in terms of Artificial Intelligence, the latter with the possibility of raising productivity to very high levels in the processes in which it is applied».

For a country like ours, he explained, which today is «extremely attacked, blocked, that we are preparing to face an ultraconservative, dominant hegemonic policy of contempt towards the peoples of America, the optimisation that we can make of all our processes is very important, and that we have to solve, among other things, with the appropriate use, I would say with a revolutionary use, also innovative, of artificial intelligence, and for that the first thing we have to have is a culture of artificial intelligence».

From the Palace of the Revolution, the working day also included an exchange with the main authorities of the provinces that in recent months were affected by the passage of hurricanes Oscar, which hit the Guantanamo territory, and Rafael, which hit the western provinces of Artemisa, Havana and Mayabeque.

The situation in Santiago de Cuba and Granma was also reviewed, after the heavy damage caused by the earthquakes at the end of last year.

Each territory reported on the current state of the different sectors affected by the natural phenomena, the problems that have been solved, as well as how much remains to be done to continue making progress in recovery.

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