Representatives from more than 50 countries and some 270 companies will meet in the Havana´s Convention Center and PABEXPO Exhibition grounds to participate in the first International Convention of the Cuban Industry, CubaIndustria 2014, confirmed the bulletin Business in Cuba, edited by Prensa Latina Agency (PL).
Between June 23 and 27 of this month twelve congresses, several talks and two workshops will take place as part of a comprehensive program.
Some 20 collateral visits were also organized to major production centers such as Dürer Caribbean (publishing), Confecciones Puntex, Eleka (electric and telephone cables), Antilla de Acero Steel, Cuban Medical Equipment Company and Suchel Camacho SA (perfumes and cosmetics) among others.
The business rounds include entities such as Habana Modas or the Salón Internacional del mueble. Workshops on June 26-27 will have two themes: Medical Equipment and Economics Applied to Industry.
Aspiration of this event to be held in alternate years, says in the call, is to become “the right space for the presentation of research and scientific-technical projects, the strengthening of technological partnerships between domestic and foreign industries, promotion of export items and the consolidation of national production. ”
The event will be attended by agencies, enterprises, institutions, universities and national and international research centers and cooperative interested in the steel, mechanical, recycling, light industry, chemical and electronics branches.
Of some people interested and Cuba´s intentions
Direct investment from countries like China to manufacture appliances, automotive, HVAC and containers are expected; with Brazil they are considering possible productions of aluminum and plastic containers; with France assortments of glass; Italy and Spain in the tire industry; UK metal structures, and Vietnam, Russia and Belarus could materialize business related to machines and tools, PL reports.
The Ferruz industrial group based in Zaragoza, Spain, reaffirmed its willingness to cooperate with the Cuban industry. In this first edition of 2014 CubaIndustria presents, in conjunction with the Ramón Peña Industrial Company, some strategic equipment for transport in Cuba sectors of high priority as the sugar industry.
Ferruz, which collaborates with the GESIME since 1983, consists of three companies: Oleohidráulica Ferruz (design and production of cylinders and components of oil hydraulic systems), FD7 Axles and Tyres (designs and manufactures axles for agricultural and industrial equipment), and FM5 Industrial Developments (manufacture of industrial and agricultural equipment).
Why now?
The background of CubaIndustria goes back to previous editions of the Metalica congress, started in 1996 and lasted for a decade, but this will be the first commercial and international scientific activity in the archipelago after the creation two years ago of the Ministry of Industries .
The executive secretary of the event, Jorge Luis Suárez Rodríguez, recently noted that this interest will be combined with the advances of the current industrial reorganization with accurate branch policies regarding recycling, handling, packaging, and the investment process in each of the branches, allowing the rise, development and efficiency of the Cuban economy.
Cuban industry anyway is not exactly the strongest suit of the national economy.
According to Vivian Herrera, Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Cuban purchases on the international market mean every year significant figures, ranging in value as international prices, and food, machinery and spare parts are some of the goods for which the country must spend millions.
Interviewed by the Cuban Industry Weekly in its June issue, she said “The crux of the issue is in production (industrial, agricultural, services …) in their own abilities to generate wealth”
In her view, these activities must be guided by parameters of equivalent quality to those imported, economical costs and customer satisfaction.
Some problems, she said, affecting the domestic industry are:
– The technology and infrastructure to meet demand
– Lack of communication between producers and potential customers what sometimes causes imports are made without knowing domestic supply and real conciliation of demand does not occur
– “Mental schemes” supported by “the belief that what is bought outside is better”
– Need to make internal marketing and market research of the island, before commissioning it to importing companies
With the new Foreign Investment Law and economic updates including cooperatives, industrial steps the nation could take a new direction, which translates to potential investors in new business options; planners for the Cuban economy, more joint ventures, partnerships and joint production agreements; and to citizens, greater employment opportunities.
What will happen?
In CubaIndustria 2014, most of the scheduled conferences are held for the first time: Automation and Industrial Maintenance (from June 23- 25), Packaging, Metalworking (June 26 and 27), quality management and environmental protection (June 26 and 27), Electronics and Appliances (June 23 and 24), Organizational Innovation and Technology Management (June 23-25), Perfumes and Cosmetics, Chemistry and Industry and its derivatives (June 23 and 24).
From already established spaces become the ninth edition of CubaDiseño (June 26 and 27) and the International Congress of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Renewable Energy (June 25 to 27); the sixteenth Metallurgical Congress (June 23-25) and the XIII International Recycling Congress ((June 23-25).
One of the most interesting is perhaps the Metalworking. In such sensitive issues to national life as making urban buses will be addressed; production equipment, tools and spare parts for agribusiness and construction; and difficulties in exporting for industrial plants.
Also important is the Recycling one, where topics such as the experience of new models of cooperative management in the sector, the scrapping of ships in Cuba and its industrialization, or the management of the purchase abroad of secondary raw materials will be analyzed.
New forms of non-state management and technology transfer will be among the highlights of the First Congress of Technology and Innovation Management; in both raw materials and materials for the steel industry, refractory, ferroalloys and other supplies in conjunction with the analysis of specialized services for the sector will be two of the hottest topics of Metalurgica.
Only 35 percent of the waste generated in the archipelago isrecycled, according to figures from the Recovery of Raw materials Enterprise, and recycling can provide the country some 200 million dollars in exports and decrease in imports. In the last five years the reuse of waste by industry in Cuba reached 450 thousand tons, mainly scrap steel, iron, copper, aluminum and brass, and plastic and paper.
Hopefully the results CubaIndustria 2014 with the broad range proposed are better than FIAGROP or the International Tourism Fair, events high attendance developed this year with the aim of promoting an economy ready for the international market.
