Cuba: Central Committee of the Communist Party held plenary session

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 19 (ACN) The 11th Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba met this Thursday afternoon, headed by its First Secretary, Army General Raul Castro Ruz.

At the meeting -where the President of the Republic and member of the Political Bureau, Miguel Díaz-Canel, also participated- the Second Secretary of the Central Committee, José Ramón Machado Ventura, announced the celebration of the VIII Congress of the Party and offered details of the preparations for that meeting, which will take place between April 16 and 19, 2021.
The members of the Central Committee also received a report on the results of the implementation of the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution during 2019. On the subject, the member of the Political Bureau of the Party, Marino Murillo Jorge, head of the Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development, explained that since the VI Congress to date a total of 216 policies and measures have been approved, 16 of them in the course of this year.
Among these decisions, he mentioned those referring to the improvement of the socialist state-owned enterprise and the higher organizations of business management; the strengthening of the Boards of Government; the leading role of science, technology and innovation; and the follow-up of the measures approved in relation to the demographic dynamics.
The complex economic situation that has worsened in recent months," said Murillo Jorge, "cannot become a factor in slowing down these processes; on the contrary, it requires giving greater impetus to updating the economic and social model in order to eliminate the obstacles that still persist in the development of productive forces and efficiency.
He considered it important to enhance the leading and guiding role of the programme documents approved by the Party and use them as a basis for day-to-day work.
During the conference, the main aspects of the Economy Plan and the indicators of the State Budget, both for the year 2020, were also informed. These documents, presented by the Ministers of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, and of Finance and Prices, Meisi Bolaños Weiss, will be presented this Friday to the deputies at the National Assembly of People's Power.
In making the conclusions of the meeting, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba called to continue working with optimism, organized, facing all kinds of obstacles. We can resist whatever comes, he stressed, but for that we must be prepared.
We will continue to move forward, the Army General assured, managing the resources we have well and making savings a daily battle, from one end of the country to the other.
In the face of the enemy's threats, Raúl said, each one of us from our neighborhoods, from our communities, must be ready to go into combat and make our own that phrase we said when the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution died: "I am Fidel!