20 May 2021 | For: Dialogues between Government and Science are strengthened this time with the Ministry of Communications Nationals Presidency of Cuba
As part of the actions carried out by the country to promote a government management system based on science and innovation, the President of the Republic led a working meeting with executives, scientists and experts associated with the telecommunications and information technology sector. . Elevated is the responsibility of the Ministry of Communications in the challenge that the country has to promote and take more advantage of the use of science, technology and innovation, in pursuit of the development of the nation. The road to travel, although it requires the support of the entire Cuban scientific and technological community, has an essential complement there. If we do not promote innovation, then we do not develop the country, and based on that we must work, stressed the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in an exchange at the Palace of the Revolution with managers, experts and scientists closely linked to that sector. The dialogue, defined by the Head of State, is a consequence of the work carried out by the Government to gradually implement a management system based on science and innovation. Similar to this meeting, others have been held in previous moments, with representatives of various ministries and organizations, all with the participation, in addition, of the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Inés María Chapman Waugh. As part of the work that has been started to extend this management system to each of the country's areas, Díaz-Canel recognized that the Ministry of Communications is one of the organizations that comes closest with its work to the objective we have set for ourselves. . Among the different processes that it is essential to develop, he highlighted the training of human potential, which includes doctors and masters, essential “pulleys” in the desire to transmit science and innovation to all scenarios. That they participate and be inserted in the sectorial science and innovation programs, both national and territorial, is one of the great challenges to achieve the necessary interrelation with the knowledge sector, said the president.
In this sense, he insisted on the need to strengthen, from telecommunications, the connections between the business system and that of the public administration, with a marked interest in territorial development; "Because we also need a focus on science and innovation in local development, and in what we are promoting there." Precisely after the purpose of strengthening the dialogues of scientists and experts with the Government and public administration institutions, academics and scientists have been incorporated into all the country's programs and all the working groups that are developing public policies, he emphasized the president of the Republic. Among the many challenges that the sector still has ahead, he highlighted the better use of existing capacities in relation to scientific research and its concretion in innovation; the training and preparation of cadres with a culture in the importance of promoting these issues; as well as the necessary computerization of society, in which this Ministry has an essential role. We want to reach a time - he considered - in which it is assumed as a practice to go to scientific research every time we have a problem to solve it through innovation.
Developing knowledge to the maximum is the challenge, and the Ministry of Communications has sufficient potential to expand the innovation environment that has been generated from the sector in recent years. This was recognized during the exchange by the Vice Minister of Communications, Grisel Reyes León, who pointed out the need to promote a culture of innovation in all entities. "That is the goal we have, that this way of acting becomes culture, that it flows naturally." To this is added, he valued, the urgency of incorporating the non-state sector, where there are ample potentialities to do from innovation and the use of science. Important projects, aimed at finding solutions to specific problems that exist in society, are carried out from the strategic communications system, linked to the development of the digital television network, the use of various platforms, and the implementation of new applications to favor public services. The topics discussed as part of the meeting were diverse and useful, with special emphasis on the importance of incorporating the culture of innovation into the mindset of decision-makers; the creation of development and innovation units in all computer applications and services companies; the strengthening of technical advisory councils; the formation and training of human potential; the development of science and technology parks; as well as the use of all the existing infrastructure.
The link established between the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) and the “José Antonio Echeverría” Technological University of Havana (CUJAE) was considered very positive in the exchange, from the creation of a Center for Telecommunications Studies and Computer science that benefits hundreds of students of the academic institution, in addition to the contribution that the participation of workers of this company as teachers has meant. Likewise, the existence of two bodies registered as science, technology and innovation entities was highlighted: the LACETEL Research Center and the Havana Technological Science Park. Aware of how much remains to be done in the sector to take better advantage of the benefits of science and achieve a greater impact on all the processes that lie ahead, Minister Mayra Arevich Marín, recognized the role that they must play in the computerization of the society. We have to work hard to continue deepening the company-university relationship, where there is an important development niche that can provide many strengths, he valued. Sometimes we think that we are enough to do everything and we do not realize that if we are accompanied by the Academy, research centers and universities, we can advance further, he reflected. For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo Di-Lella considered that the true effectiveness of the national industry is that we achieve, with innovation, add value to the industry. Hence their insistence on evaluating the projects that we are committed to manufacturing in the country, to define which, based on innovation, are feasible and allow a true technological appropriation, with a transfer of value to what we are doing.