Making optimum use of the massive resources that the Cuban government is investing in the rehabilitation of the countrys transportation network demands a high level of organization, commitment and efficiency from workers and officials at all levels. This was expressed by Transportation Minister Jorge Luis Sierra at the Cuban parliament on Thursday.
Sierra stressed that the effort is indispensable for the economic development of the nation.
Public transportation will gradually improve and a large number of buses will arrive in Cuba in the coming months, he said. The arrival of the new buses, announced during the last ordinary session of the parliament, took longer than planned because of contract complications that are now resolved.
The new vehicles will gradually be incorporated over the next few years. Prior to that, it is necessary to create the administrative conditions and maintenance capability to guarantee the best and longest use of the units, the official noted.
In relation to freight transportation, while insufficiencies continue, indicators are beginning to show greater efficiency in comparison to the past few years. These have come after an intense reordering and reassignment of resources to improve this strategic economic activity, though operational deficiencies remain in the railroad system, he said.
Sierra informed legislators about several programs designed to improve the road infrastructure. Planned for this year is the beginning of the National Expressway, Via Blanca, dirt roads to the Coco and Santa Maria Cays, improvement of roads in the eastern provinces and those under the Plan Turquino Program in mountainous regions.
Well over $40 million dollars has been designated to reestablish earth-moving and road construction brigades of the Ministry of Construction, an increase in the capability to produce asphalt at specialized plants and the repair of equipment used in quarries.
Sierra also spoke on the issue of energy underlining the importance of conserving fuel. For this, he said, improvements of controls to achieve more rational consumption are necessary.
Vice President Carlos Lage warned that with the arrival of the new buses it is crucial to win the battle of organization and discipline. He said each unit must be used in line with its operating standards, obeying the regulations established after their having been analyzed and approved by the Ministry of Transportation.
Sierra recalled that in 2006 alternative transport provided 437 million rides, including those on workers buses. He said whats most fair is to use them rationally.
Organization, planning and controls are important in the use of the new Chinese Yutong buses, which have given a positive image of the first steps to reviving public transportation.
However, Sierra noted that the object of the Yutong fleet is inter-provincial service, since they would not hold up if used for urban transport.
Maria Teresa Caballero, a representative of the municipality of Jibacoa, Camaguey mentioned another concern: difficulties in the implementation of the recent agreement between the ministries of Transportation and Higher Education to reduce inter-provincial bus prices by 50 percent for university students. She urged for mechanisms be found to make the accord effective.
IMPROVEMENT IN SUGAR CANE PRODUCTION
Its restructuring concluded, the sugar industry moves ahead to a new stage aimed at the optimization and development of this sector of the economy, Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro told members of the Cuban Parliament also on Thursday.
Permanent attention to the sugar cane plantations, sugar processing, the diversification of the industry and the production of food for the people are part of the streamlined effort, said Rosales del Toro.
Sugar cane is the life, the reason to exist, of the Ministry of the Sugar Industry, Rosales del Toro explained. That's why a great part of the effort and resources of the agency are concentrated in increasing cane production, he added.
Having improved the agricultural yields, and ended the harvest season with 104 percent of the sugar cane estimates, the sugar cane plantations are entering into a new stage of renovation, after three years of a severe drought.
The official said that while 34.0 metric tons of sugar cane production per hectare (the national average yield) of the last harvest is still a low figure, it was encouraging that 122 producers of sugarcane are above the 54 tons per hectare mark. He noted that in the eastern part of the nation, the area where the greatest reduction in yields due to the drought was experienced, this last harvest saw an average yield of 44.1 tons per hectare of sugar cane.
In response to the interest shown by the legislators regarding the perspectives that exist in the sugar cane production, the Minister explained that at this moment work is being done in five essential lines of development:
Organization of the work force in special brigades, optimizing the budgets according to campaigns, strains of the sugar cane planted and the areas (blocks) where they are grown, as well as increasing the link between the worker's pay and what is actually produced. He also mentioned assuring the proper integrated training of all the workers and the consolidation of agricultural extension procedures for achieving maximum yields per hectare and the highest concentration of sucrose in the plants.
The difference that exists between the former Ministry of the Sugar Industry and today's , Rosales del Toro underscored, is having more sugar cane in less area, and continuing to grow, achieving the maximum technical potential and to guarantee high quality planting that assure a plantation population higher than 90 percent. Availability of the sugar cane seed is still a problem that needs to be solved, he indicated, but work continues in that direction and that in a not to distant date, there will be enough seed banks for our requirements.
CLIMATE BARELY ALLOWED FOR WORK
From Camaguey to Guantanamo (provinces that should had produced 54 percent of the sugar that was planned for the harvest season) and in the North of Villa Clara and Ciego de Avila, the rain barely allowed for the harvest. Only two examples: between the months of November and March it rained 72 times in Las Tunas province and 63 times in Holguin province.
From Camaguey to Guantanamo (provinces that should had produced 54 percent of the sugar that was planned for the harvest season) and in the North of Villa Clara and Ciego de Avila, the rain barely allowed for the harvest. Only two examples: between the months of November and March it rained 72 times in Las Tunas province and 63 times in Holguin province.
Rosales del Toro told the lawmakers that together with the rain, the primary unavoidable cause of the delay in production, the Ministry is evaluating the inefficiencies of a group of sugar mills with significant drops in their sugar cane production from the estimates and unjustified losses in the industrial processes.
Other sugar mills started to harvest their sugar cane plantations late, due to delays in the arrival of resources, due to the characteristic of the providers.
The climate change, the Minister highlighted, left experiences that force us to take additional measures, among them to accelerate the contracting of expendable resources required and to eradicate the deficiencies in management and training of the workers collectives that have been traced to exist at some sugar mills.
The preparations for the upcoming harvest have begun earlier than last year, and the Minister announced that already 45 percent of the imported resources required have been contracted and that so far 23 percent of them, including fertilizers, herbicides and other supplies are already in Cuba.
VP Carlos Lage noted that the sugar harvests will be in correspondence with the climate changes and the price of sugar on the international markets. He said they must be carried out efficiently, of low cost, and with a savings of energy. We should not forget, Lage stated, that in Cuba, in contrast to other nations, 80 percent of the cutting on the sugar cane plantations is done with harvesting machinery, something that becomes complicated when there is a high level of humidity.
Answering questions from the representatives, deputy ministers of the sugar industry covered other topics, among them the situation that exists on the lands that are not planted with sugar cane and are now devoted to other crops and animal production. That change is one of the main missions of the Ministry of the Sugar Industry. They also referred to the advances achieved in these communities whose hub used to be the sugar mills and the social programs to benefit the population.