Bad performance of Las Tunas economy during 2021

If we were to analyze the economy of Las Tunas in 2021, in baseball terms, we would say that none of the three aspects of the game exhibits good figures. Even without taking into account the December data, there are irreversible tendencies despite the post-November 15 revivals.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- It is known that between the two lines of lime it is important to score and win; and in the economic plane, physical productions are the basis of everything because, at the end of the day, development is born from material reproduction. In this "offensive" aspect, the green and red team that would form the state economic actors of Las Tunas should honor 135 physical assortments, but it only did it at 68 percent. And the fact is that the center of the "lineup" failed, which would be made up of entities belonging to the AZCUBA business group, others linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as those subordinated to the portfolios of Industry, Construction, and Food Industry.

This productive "slump" reached both ends of the business "lineup", in which we would locate the entities of local subordination. Something similar happened with the total net sales, which would be our "pitching", since in the economy, besides producing, we must sell. In this last aspect, our "pitchers" were just over 80 percent of compliance.

Bad performance of Las Tunas economy during 2021

Within this particular staff, some of those that we would classify as "openers" managed to exceed their forecasted plans. This is the case of the companies of Dairy Products, Agricultural Supply and Transportation, Paco Cabrera Metal Structures, Post Office, Supply and Service to Education, and Health Insurance; as well as the provincial companies of Maintenance and Construction, Integral Food Industry, Housing, and Road Maintenance.

But other "headline pitchers", such as the companies of Stainless Steels, Swine, Meat, the sugar companies, and Integral Food Industry, to mention a few, pulled down the numbers. Not to mention the pitchers of the bullpen, which would be, among others, those included in the Business Trading Group or the Provincial Transportation of General Cargo and Passengers (Cardinal, by its acronym in Spanish), whose performance is no less important. It should not be forgotten that, in the daily economic challenge, as it happens in the sport of balls and strikes, victory comes if both those who start the game and those who secure the final innings do well.

All of the above was expressed with similar crudeness in the figures of retail trade circulation, which would be equivalent to the "defensive" of this hypothetical ninth of productive and service entities in the Balcony of Easter Cuba in 2021. This indicator showed, at the end of November, overall compliance of 83.9 percent; but it is worse in the case of the "shortstop" of the local economy "playing field", which would be the companies belonging to the Business Group of Commerce of the organs of the People's Power.

Without ignoring the shortcomings that the business community here has in the "tactical-technical" order, there is no doubt that during 2021 they have had to jump on their lawn during an unprecedented perfect storm. Note that precisely the worst digits recorded by the province in terms of total net sales and mercantile circulation almost coincided with the July-August-September quarter, when Las Tunas went through the peak of Covid-19, with the consequent extreme limitation of services and productions.

However, events such as the first Winter Fair and the XI Business Round more than corroborated that a not inconsiderable percentage of what is not done in the "batting", "pitching" and "defense" of the economy of Las Tunas, could be achieved if its protagonists would establish stable spaces of interlocution that would allow them to explore joint business options.

Strengthening, speeding up, and consolidating the progress of the new economic actors, invigorating the role of the socialist state enterprise and its linkage with the non-state sector, to produce more goods and services for the people, are the main objectives that the land of Vicente Garcia has set for 2022 in economic matters. Doing so will imply to keep in mind that in 2021 the rules of the game changed, perhaps as never before, also in economic matters.

The highest instance of the revolutionary Government put into effect 43 measures to strengthen the socialist state enterprise, 63 aimed at increasing agricultural production, and 93 to save the sugar sector. The successive debates about the practical application here of these packages of changes revealed the urgency of understanding that these transformations imply the alteration of styles that have been stagnant for decades between the "players" in the field and the "managers" in the bank. The former must continue to adapt to the idea that they cannot constantly wait for signals from above; the latter must assume the risk of making mistakes by making decisions with their own head.

New prospects are already being recruited for the "games" to come. They are those micro, small or medium private companies that come with a great desire to do well, to bat their own hits, to achieve good-invoice strikeouts, and to make catches of legend on the local scene. Yes, because the economy of Las Tunas from now on will be much more a matter of team play.