Updating of the economic and social policy guidelines debated at the 8th Party Congress

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 18 (ACN) The proposal to update the economic and social policy guidelines of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2021-2026 was the focus of the morning debates held this Saturday by the delegates to the 8th Party Congress gathered in Commission 1, Economic and Social.

According to the Central Report, as a result of the updating of the guidelines approved in the VII Congress, it is proposed to maintain 17, modify 165, delete 92 and add 18, which would make a total of 200, subject to evaluation by the Congress.

Commenting on the subject, Mercedes López Acea, member of the Political Bureau and of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, affirmed that the guidelines for the next period have their most concrete expression in the short term in the economic and social strategy for the promotion of the economy and the confrontation of the world crisis provoked by the COVID-19.

During the consultation process with the delegates, 113 proposals were made on the updating of the conceptualization of the Cuban economic and social model of socialist development, while 157 proposals were made on the updating of the guidelines.

Regarding the latter, it was reported that 131 are suggestions of content, 122 propose modifications and nine suggest new guidelines. The other 26 proposals are of form. "In all cases, the proposals were taken into account". Of the total of content proposals, 78 are proposed to be accepted and 53 were not accepted," said López Acea.

The proposals not accepted are related to the fact that the elements proposed are already included in other guidelines, others are related to the approved policies and legal norms for their implementation; some are related to the functions of the agencies, and others are very specific in scope. The chapters with the highest number of proposals were those related to social policy, industrial and energy policy, economic management models and agro-industrial policy.

Carlos Cesar Torres Páez, guest from Pinar del Río, pointed out the importance of territorial management and the development of rural communities. On the second point, he proposed broadening the scope of the guidelines on the treatment of mountainous areas. It was explained that the guideline in question refers specifically to mountainous areas, in a more inclusive concept than that of the former Turquino Manatí Plan.

Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President of the Republic, expressed the need to revitalize rural areas as well. On the subject itself, he stressed the priority that has always been given to the mountains. "Several visits have been made to these places and it is a topic that was discussed in the Political Bureau".

Later, when analyzing macroeconomic policies, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández, warned that, although it is true that investments must be increased, what must be achieved is that they are well executed, "because many times they are not recovered and the feasibility study does not correspond to the expected returns".

Another issue analyzed by the Cuban Deputy Prime Minister was related to subsidies. "Not all of them are bad. There is a level of subsidies that are productive or savings incentives". Such is the case of banking incentives or subsidies to agricultural production. What should be eliminated are those aimed at assuming inefficiencies and losses resulting from theft and diversion of resources.

In another part of the debate, issues related to investments and maintenance were analyzed. On the latter issue, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, pointed out that not carrying out maintenance is a mistake.

"For many years it was throw away the old and buy the new. We know that many of the things that are produced today do not have the same resistance as before (...) We must promote that maintenance is part of development. This does not deny replacement, but if we have to innovate and be strictly disciplined in something, it is in the search for solutions in this area", he said.

Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, delegate for Cienfuegos, considered that sometimes in productive analyses this issue is not taken into account. "We wanted to emphasize the source of repayment, ensuring the need for technicians to value every penny that is put to maintenance."

Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People's Power, concluded that in the country "we have always had a culture of doing new things, but we do not provide maintenance. This element has a lot to do with savings and planning".

For his part, Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella, delegate for Havana and Minister of Communications, stressed that the new update of the guidelines strengthens the use of information technologies and telecommunications.

He explained that three new guidelines on this sector are proposed, while the one proposed in the VII Congress is modified to highlight the impact of informatization on the dynamization of the economy.

Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, delegate for Santiago de Cuba and Minister of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma), addressed issues related to this sector and urged to advance in the use of humanistic sciences.

"Social innovation for the development of society is often underestimated. It is necessary to present the country with new challenges and address issues that had not been sufficiently dealt with in the previous Congress. It is stimulating to know that progress is being made in the rescue of historical memory and we propose a guideline linked to this topic".

Cienfuegos delegate Luis Belkis Rosabal addressed the need to promote the introduction of STI (science, technology and innovation) in productive processes and services, which is in line with the country's development objectives.

Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, commenting on the proposal for a new guideline to support the advancement of the informatization of society, emphasized the transversal scope of this process. "The program of subversion and generation of contents by the enemy has been redoubled; in this sense, the foundation of this guideline speaks of the culture of the use of technologies in the scenario of non-conventional warfare".

On this day, a new guideline was proposed, "To advance in the study of cryptocurrencies in the current conditions of the economy".

At the end, the Prime Minister submitted the proposal for updating the guidelines of the economic and social policy of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2021-2026, along with the proposed amendments, to a vote in the commission. This will be submitted to the plenary of the Congress.