On Thursday morning, President Díaz-Canel and the Prime Minister held a new meeting with the main authorities of the 15 provinces of the country and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, where vital issues for development were evaluated. economic and social of the country.
Far from promoting the neglect of the most diverse aspects of the nation's daily life, the confrontation with COVID-19 has ratified the importance of maintaining as working principles aspects that determine the future of the country, such as planning, saving, confronting corruption and illegalities, as well as the constant search for alternatives to substitute imports and boost national productions.
In this way, the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, led a new working meeting on Thursday morning with the main authorities of the 15 provinces of the country and the municipality Special Isle of Youth, where the Head of State insisted on the integrative approach with which the economic and social development of the Island should be projected.
The extensive agenda of the meeting, where the Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdés Mesa, and all the Deputy Prime Ministers also participated, had as its first point of analysis the presentation by the Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil Fernández, of the elements fundamental that have been defined to carry out the adjustment of the Plan of the Economy of the present year; the indications for preparing the 2021 Plan; and the main elements that define the economic strategy that Cuba will follow to face the situation caused by the pandemic.
These matters, which had already been approved previously in meetings of the Council of Ministers, are of crucial importance in the current scenario, hence the insistence of Gil Fernández on stressing that it is not a matter of accommodating ourselves to the current situation, but rather of anticipating and do everything possible to minimize the effects that we may have, and even increase productive activities.
It is time, he considered, to put reservations on the table and work with them. Likewise, it ratified the premise of saving as much as possible, not only energy carriers; saving is not stopping, it is reaching the levels that are foreseen in the plans with less resources.
In the current context - he valued - it is about taking advantage of the experiences that this situation has left us, in all scenarios, applying them well and defining then what measures can be maintained and which ones should be perfected to make the economy more efficient.
Associated with this, the Prime Minister called the leaders to analyze the specific measures they have been adopting in their territories, which in some cases could also be useful in others.
The return to normality - he pointed out - has to be without trusting, without going back ... and we have to ensure that the measures that we are applying are accompanied by the corresponding control, so as not to go back on the progress we have made in containing the disease .
During the meeting, an evaluation was also presented on the behavior of indisciplines, illegalities and manifestations of administrative corruption in 2019, an aspect that the Prime Minister considered, invites us to reflect on the need to do things differently, to think about them and action to seek more effectiveness.
At the meeting, they also learned about confronting the illegalities linked to land and urban planning, an aspect in which the highest figures continue to be in the province of Havana.
Special attention was given to the strategy that the country has proposed to boost the production of animal feed with its own resources, where the use of different protein plants whose cultivation is promoted in the national territory stands out. Likewise, the important challenge facing the Food Industry and Agriculture to increase, from the local level, the production of food for our people was highlighted.
Later, it became known about different measures that have been adopted in the territories by mass organizations and governments to promote electricity savings. These decisions, it was assured, have demonstrated their effectiveness, both in the state and residential sectors, as a decrease in the consumption of electrical energy has been observed in recent weeks.
At the close of the fourth month of the year, the behavior of the Maternal and Child Program was also dedicated during the videoconference on Monday, given the importance of its behavior for the future of the country. This is a subject of constant monitoring by the Cuban Government and in which it works to solve problems that persist with regard to the organization and quality of services in primary care and in hospitals.
On the other hand, a brief update was made on compliance with the State Plan for tackling climate change, known as Tarea Vida, as part of which measures must be taken to support the protection of the environment throughout the national territory.
Díaz-Canel: Future work should be characterized by a comprehensive approach
Everything we do at this time - insisted the President of the Republic when making the conclusions of the meeting - we necessarily have to relate it to the fundamental objective in which we are immersed, which is our strategy of economic and social development to face the current moments and also create the foundations for the future development of the country.
That we all prepare well and support the development of these tasks, he considered, when evaluating the importance of the topics analyzed during the day.
In particular on aspects directly related to the economy, he pointed out that these are aspects that will take up a lot of time in the coming weeks and months and should be characterized by a comprehensive approach, capable of projecting itself based on the nation's economic and social development.
He insisted that it be understood at all levels what will be the common thread of the actions of an economic nature that Cuba has proposed to carry out in the midst of the complex scenario imposed by COVID-19, further aggravated by the intensification of the economic and commercial blockade. and financial imposed by the Government of the United States and the application of the third chapter of the Helms-Burton Act, with its negative consequences for the development of the Greater Antilles.
In the recovery stage of the new coronavirus, he stressed, we have to be aware that the country will gradually move to a different normality than we were used to, and that logically requires defining well how we will do it. Life will not be the same, the behavior of people will not be the same, he added, it will be necessary to continue maintaining physical distance and to analyze with great intelligence what activities are being opened and at what moment.
After what we have experienced, he valued, we will have to update our plans for dealing with this type of situation and extract the best learning that will allow us to overcome the insufficiencies that we have detected.
Díaz-Canel also expressed his certainty that we can emerge stronger from this complex scenario and put the country in better conditions to face the difficult crisis that will be experienced worldwide. The responsibility of all government structures to achieve those purposes is very high, he emphasized.
Likewise, he recognized the work carried out by the structures of the Party and the Government at all levels during these months of confrontation with COVID-19, an effort that also has the recognition of the people, who have been able to appreciate the results. "Cuba has passed the epidemic without crisis, without overcrowding in its intensive care rooms," she said.
Later, the Head of State insisted on the need to face a group of illegalities and acts of corruption that have accumulated at the local level, which must be done rigorously and systematically by the territorial administrations.
It is necessary to face such an effective confrontation that it eliminates impunity, because to fracture and crush this type of event requires systematic and rigorous actions.
Referring to food production in the country, he stressed the urgency of taking advantage of all possible alternatives, in all scenarios. "We are going to think about development from our potentialities, from our roots, from what is in our natural resources," he valued.
Associated with this, he commented on the importance of innovation. It is not only to investigate, he said, but also to apply what has been the result of scientific research and incorporate it into our ways of doing things, as should happen with the experiences of the Sierra Maestra Program, he exemplified.
In particular on saving in electricity consumption, he appreciated that what happened shows once again that when we are not systematic in the measures we adopt, things go hand in hand. We had come a long way when we implemented measures to deal with fuel shortages, ”he acknowledged,“ and at the slightest oversight we had an increase in energy consumption. Saving has to be a permanent element in our behavior, he pointed out, and it is everyone's responsibility to carry it out.
Regarding the sensitive issue of the Maternal and Child Program, he stressed that the results that have been obtained and consolidated in all these years are a conquest of the Revolution that we must continue to perfect in all scenarios.
In this sense, he emphasized the priority that should be given to monitoring this matter; This is a solid program with results that must be attended to in each place, depending on its particularities.
Finally, he considered that the Life Task as one of the essential premises that the country must take into account to achieve sustainable development. "If we do not preserve the environment we do not have sustainable development and this is also linked to economic and social development."
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