The Cuban President visited the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Monitoring Centre, the Werteks drug factory, and the Rosseti Company’s Intelligent Laboratory for Encrypted Networks.

-For joint ventures, for exchanging ideas and exploiting potential wherever it appears, there will always be time and space, and it will always be worthwhile to say: «see you later».

This is the certainty that emerges from the experience of the high-level delegation that arrived in the Russian Federation on Monday, led by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

The afternoon in St. Petersburg was centred on a visit to leading institutions in the use of new technologies and permanent innovation. «We are very happy to welcome you,» the dignitary was told at the city’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Monitoring Centre.

At the state-of-the-art AI centre, which aims to monitor the functioning of the city in order to make life run more smoothly, he received detailed explanations on how the vitality of services such as transport, electricity, water supply and others can be optimised.

Some 12,000 calls are received daily from citizens about multiple emergencies. Until the stories are resolved, they remain open. This is a way, as they explained to the Cuban President, to solve multiple issues, to avoid all kinds of accidents, and to reduce indiscipline.

The Head of State asked whether its creators export the experience to other latitudes, and commented on the relevance of Cuban specialists coming to St. Petersburg to train in this 20-year-old undertaking which, supported by tools such as AI, can have a direct impact on the quality of life of a society and be very useful, as it was during the days of COVID-19.

A FACTORY THAT GROWS, AND THE INVITATION TO WORK TOGETHER

The second point on the itinerary was the Werteks drug production centre, located in the city’s Special Economic Zone. Werteks is one of the root companies in the development of the national pharmaceutical industry. Proud of the variety and presentation of what is made, the centre’s management said that more than 400 products are produced there, including 300 generic medicines.

Some 900 people work in the production workshops. It is expected that new facilities will be ready, and that another 300 workers will join them. Werteks’ reach is extending beyond the territory of the Russian Federation; scientific research is continuing; and the resonance of its success reaches as far as the Asian region.

President Díaz-Canel said: «We want to thank you very much for the reception you have given us, and the explanations you have given us. We, he said, «highly value the development of this area and the company».

He alluded to a similar experience that exists in the Greater Antilles, such as the Mariel Special Zone in Havana, and recalled that last year, in this very scenario, a videoconference made it possible to present a group of possibilities in the business portfolio to companies from St. Petersburg, several of which are associated with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.

The dignitary evoked the 1990s, when the island was going through a very complex situation, and Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, «who always had a forward-looking vision of the role of science and innovation in a country like Cuba, promoted a group of research and innovation centres that became known as the Havana Science Pole».

Díaz-Canel commented on the fact that, at that difficult time, «more than 20 centres were oriented towards scientific research for the development of biotechnological and pharmaceutical products. Those were very hard times, he said, and some thought that Fidel was making a big mistake, «but life proved him right: he created a potential for scientific development and innovation, which produced a group of medicines and advanced developments, recognised today in an important part of the world.

He mentioned Cuban reference products, such as effective vaccines against lung cancer and other types of cancer; a wide range of products of different technologies in vaccines for diseases such as Hepatitis; and vaccines against COVID-19, of which Cuba designed five candidates, three of which became effective vaccines.

I believe,» he said, «that there is a potential for joint research and mutual contributions in terms of developments, perhaps in terms of technology transfer. He said that «the issue of joint development of biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry has always been part of the discussions we have held with President Putin, with the Intergovernmental Commission, and with the Russian Federation.

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba recalled that Latin America represents an important space, with great potential, for a company like Werteks, if it is a question of joint ventures: «We invite you to this, and we expect you in Cuba, sooner rather than later,» said the Head of State.

The intense afternoon session was followed by another important centre for the development of the Eurasian giant: the Rosseti Company’s intelligent laboratory for encrypted networks. Rosseti is one of the largest electricity distribution companies in the country, with an active presence in 82 regions.

Díaz-Canel received a detailed explanation of what they do there in terms of engineering and construction of electrical installations, from equipment testing and implementation of digital technologies, to the solution of problems related to cybersecurity.

In parting, the dignitary told his attentive hosts: «See you in Cuba. You have to do things like this.