The National Innovation Council examined at its October session the Draft Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, headed by Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, specified the presidency’s website.

The Cuban leader indicated that the future regulation should eliminate obstacles to scientific development, cover legal gaps and respond to proposals from the scientific community in meetings held across the entire country.

Armando Rodríguez Batista, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment, presented the Draft Law and explained that in its preparation scientists, innovators, educators and specialists from bodies of the Central State Administration participated, among them the ministries of Public Health, Agriculture and Justice.

Díaz-Canel insisted that the consultation of the document should encompass the entire science, technology and innovation sector, as well as other spheres of society, with the purpose of strengthening the text through collective debate.

The initial diagnosis identified shortcomings such as the absence of an integrated regulatory provision, insufficient business financing, scarce access to foreign currency, lack of a human potential development programme, weak integration of social sciences with natural sciences and deficiencies in the preparation of cadres and officials.

Rodríguez Batista specified that the consultation conceived as a process of collective construction would include all the provinces and the special municipality Isla de la Juventud, with the objective of gathering criteria from academics, researchers, students, businesspeople, professors and government authorities.

Members of the National Innovation Council evaluated the text as solid and proposed strengthening it with novel evaluation schemes, greater attention to social sciences, impetus to digital transformation, preparation of cadres and strengthening of participatory democracy.

The Minister of CITMA informed that the Draft Law is supported by some twenty principles, among them issuing a high-ranking legal document, advancing towards a strengthened science, technology and innovation system, periodically evaluating its functioning, creating a comprehensive human development programme and recognising innovative enterprises as science and technology entities.

The proposal contemplates eight chapters that cover all levels and actors, with emphasis on innovation, the transition towards a knowledge economy and the international insertion of Cuban science.

Rodríguez Batista added that specific provisions of the science, technology and innovation system already updated and coherent with the principles of the Draft Law will remain in force.

According to the Minister, some 1,500 people participated in the initial consultation, which allowed the document to be enriched with contributions from diverse sectors.

The debate process will continue across the entire country with the aim of consolidating a legal norm that involves society as a whole.