By Eliane Portillo

In a meeting of the Cuban parliament’s standing commission on Economic Affairs, Cuba’s First Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Antonio Carricarte said there has been a slight reduction of imports, but noted there are management deficiencies in ensuring raw materials, among other matters, that hamper the country’s goals of replacing imports with local products and increasing exports.

The deputy minister noted that there is great potential for increasing and diversifying exports given to the high educational level of the Cuban people, and the level of development reached in the fields of health, informatics and communications.  Carricarte suggested that the export of services be combined with the exports of goods as an added value and to achieve greater integrality. He added that Cuban enterprises should go for further efficiency, basing their moves on deep analysis of the market so that numbers can grow and investments are recovered in short terms.

He praised the training measures implemented by the National Association of Cuban Economists and Accountants in several parts of the country, reaching more than 700 enterprises and thousands of people. Among the main products for the expansion and diversification of exports, he mentioned sugar and its derivatives, nickel, rum, the fishing industry and cigars. The twelve standing parliamentary commissions met for two days prior to the eight periods of sessions of the legislative body in its seventh Legislature starting Thursday