Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX) and the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Cuba agreed that part of the success in the export effort that the Cuban economy needs lies in the will to overcome the many difficulties it faces; an intention that, they said, is visible in the Las Tunas' business community, and the political and government authorities of the province.

"What we can appreciate the most here, in Las Tunas, is the desire to do, is the will to achieve exportable products, to substitute imports," Roberto López Hernández, Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment said while touring the exhibition areas of the Las Tunas Industry and Commerce Fair 2022. Said purpose, he praised, is in tune with the priorities that the country has outlined to overcome the hard trance that the national economy is going through.

Antonio Carricarte, head of the Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that regardless of the U.S. siege of any commercial or financial transaction of the Greater of the Antilles abroad, "the main difficulty we may face to develop exports is in our minds because there is a market where our products or services are in demand.”

OPPORTUNITY FOR DIALOGUE

Businessmen and cooperative members present at the Fair agreed on its relevance to promoting new business opportunities and the acquisition of new professional skills that put them in a position for better performance in the domestic or foreign markets.

"I think so; that it is a space for the development of the present and the future that allows us to immediately meet and exchange," said Wilmer Espinosa Vargas, the president of the Elpidio Sosa credit and services cooperative (CCS), from Vázquez, in the municipality of Puerto Padre. For a year, this cooperative has maintained profitable business with the Stainless Steel Company (Acinox Las Tunas) acquiring black slag that is later used as a construction material.

At the commercial event, the CCS evaluated other options with the Fishing Company, for the improvement and construction of fish breeding ponds. Espinosa Vargas expressed his pleasure at having a Company (AGROINT) with the category of exporter and importer on Las Tunas' soil since it is shown as an option to link more expeditiously with foreign markets. "More cooperative members should be here to discover the business opportunities we have found," he opined.

Yoander Batista Álvarez, the director of the Consyba private construction company, based in the Holguín municipality of Calixto García, talked in similar terms. "We signed four letters of intent with companies that can provide us with resources," he revealed. "It is important that we can continue creating strategic alliances between the state and private sectors as the country is looking for, so that they go hand in hand, joining forces, and thus, being able to boost the economy.”

After signing her signature in a letter of intent with the University of Las Tunas, as a first step toward the improvement of her specialists, Kety Ortiz Avilés, head of Organization and Control of the Beverage and Soft Drinks Company estimated that the Industry and the Commerce Fair "is aimed at encouraging our professionals to be in line with what is being asked in the country, which is to insert ourselves into the new forms of management, to training in the subject of innovation, and show the production possibilities that we have today in our territory."

BUSINESS MEETINGS CONTINUE

The second day of the 2nd Industry and Commerce Fair began with the commemorative cancellation of a postage stamp, for which the issue aimed at disseminating cultural diversity in eastern Cuba was selected. The stamps were designed by Ricardo Monnar; and 190,620 were printed with a retail price of 0.90 cents, in Cuban pesos.

Besides, the University of Las Tunas officially launched the call for the 4th International Scientific Convention and 3rd Las Tunas Expo-Fair, scheduled for May 2023. Before, Dr. Yamil Arce, the director of the Center for the Improvement of Foreign Trade, belonging to MINCEX, gave the conference entitled “Let's learn to Export;” and the delegation of the Ministry of Tourism presented its development strategy until 2025, which maintains the Covarrubias beach resort as the center of the hopes of the chimneyless industry in this part of Cuba.

At night, the companies Tecnoazúcar, Tobacco Collection, Processing, and Twisting and Caché Bar-Restaurant came together to make a pairing of tobacco and rum, both with products manufactured in Las Tunas.

Entities of several municipalities of this eastern territory show their productions at the Fair. This is the case of the Agroforestry Company of the provincial capital and the Sugar Agribusiness of “Colombia” and Majibacoa. Others of provincial and national relevance also participate as the Paco Cabrera Metal Structures (METUNAS), ACINOX Las Tunas Stainless Steel; as well as all those linked to the Tourism sector.