Cuba: Business fair to bring state and private companies closer

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 11 (ACN) The fourth edition of the Business Fair will be held in Expocuba from May 10 to 25, which will allow all economic entities in the country to explore the potentialities of the domestic market, strengthen their relationships and diversify the offers.

René Hernández, Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, informed Cuban News Agency that, as on previous occasions, the Superior Business Management Organizations (OSDE), Provincial Administration Councils, state companies and joint ventures, wholesale traders, non-agricultural cooperatives and self-employed.
As part of the process of preparing the 2018 Plan, the vice-president explained that the event, whose registration is already open, will allow negotiating offers and services that will guarantee the productive processes planned for the coming year in Cuba.
However, Hernández insisted that the meeting is, above all, an ideal opportunity to establish or strengthen short-term links, to know each other more, to "compete fraternally", to identify reserves and possibilities for expansion, and thus to substitute imports, a very important goal given the current scenario of financial constraints the country faces.
Based on the new powers granted to the Cuban business system, it was recalled that the entities can decide which secondary and support activities, derived from their social object, they are in a position to develop, or even to market their surplus or non-operations at the price determined by the relation between supply and demand.
Even - he pointed out - during the fair, companies can prioritize among their objectives the treatment of their idle and slow moving inventories, in conditions to be reoriented towards other activities.
In a scenario where non-state forms of management continue to grow, the forthcoming business exchange will also enable them to establish and diversify their contractual links with legal entities, one of the difficulties still present and limiting their progress, as they have stated in several times these economic actors.
According to official data, by the end of 2016, there were just over 535,000 self-employed workers and 397 non-agricultural cooperatives in Cuba, mainly engaged in trade and repair of personal effects, restaurants, construction and in manufacturing.