09 February 2022 | For: Rebel Youth Newspaper
The Informatics and Communications Business Group reviews what was achieved last year with a view to strengthening its decisive participation in the process of digitization and development of Cuba Contributing to the development of Cuba is a constant for the Informatics and Communications Business Group (Geic), which held its annual work meeting this Wednesday to assess what has been achieved in 2021 and analyze the challenges that the current year holds.
According to the central report of the meeting, last year the entities integrated into the Geic worked intensively on the implementation of new services for the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies in the country, with results of various kinds. .
Thus, it transpired that the development by Softel of the e-Signature application, to use the digital signature on mobile devices with the Android operating system, together with new functionalities implemented by Desoft in the Tax Portal, contributed to the computerization of the services offered by the ONAT to taxpayers. This action is an example of the management of online procedures and participation in the digital transformation of this institution. Desoft, for its part —whose 24th anniversary is this February 9—, launched in 2021 the first Cuban platform for the management of virtual events, Fevexpo, created from Odoo technology and which was successfully used in Felti 2021.
Likewise, it advanced in consolidating its virtual store solution, using the same technology. The development of the first two modules of the Sagen platform for energy management, the deployment of the Portecoos system for port logistics and the new version of the Cuban Television Billboard application, are also part of the results obtained by Desoft during the year just ended. Solintel S.A., another of the GEIC entities, implemented the new online electronic hardware store service Your solution, which allows importing to non-state management forms. In the period from June to December, sales reached more than 330,000 USD and maintained consignments with three suppliers that have allowed to maintain a supply and rapid response to the demands presented. In addition, this company completed the first stage and made progress in the delivery of the sites for the second stage of the railway communications modernization project.
Similarly, Movitel, with an innovative solution, interconnected two telecommunications networks with different technologies to guarantee this service to the railways throughout the country. Likewise, it achieved the development of a test version of a Cuban platform to offer the PoC (Push to talk over Cellular) service, which should continue the development of its functionalities and its deployment as a national platform for telecommunications services, which includes messaging and voice calls, highlights the central report of the GEIC.
The launch of version 1.2 of the antivirus for mobile phones with the Android operating system, Segurmática Seguridad Móvil, with new features such as blocking calls from fraudulent international numbers, was one of the results of Segurmática in 2021, which also advanced in the development of other components of the Cuban security suite. These two projects maintain their continuity this year and should contribute to the extension of the use of Cuban antivirus, both for mobile and desktop terminals.
On the other hand, Radiocuba imported the transmitters and coordinated the necessary actions to execute the partial transition from analog to digital television in early 2022 in the western region of the country. Cubatel S.A guaranteed the installation of the telecommunications infrastructure to Etecsa based on the broadband access strategy in the country.
Regarding the management of innovation, of the 17 R&D&i projects planned by the integrated entities and evaluated by the Group's Technical Advisory Council, progress is only made in ten, corresponding to Cubatel, Desoft, Movitel, Segurmática and Softell. In addition, in 2021, three Sectoral Programs of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Ministry of Communications were approved, for which Segurmática and OSDE were appointed as managing entities of two of them: Cybersecurity and Software Industry and Computerization of Society, respectively. In addition, two Segurmatic projects in Cybersecurity were presented and approved to begin execution in 2022, while one from Desoft and another from Softel were approved in the software industry.
Despite the results obtained, there are dissatisfactions in relation to the management of innovation related to problems for the management of R&D&I projects, little collaboration with universities and research centers with this objective, and lack of knowledge of the framework legal approved for the activity, which leads to a waste of its potential.
At the meeting, the work priorities for 2022 were presented: achieving an effective and safe insertion of innovative applications and services, ensuring the growth and sustainable development of the GEIC, promoting the management of human capital —a core aspect of the Group's work during 2021 , analyze in depth—, and establish innovation, institutional communication and digital transformation as pillars of business management, among others.
The meeting was chaired by Mayra Arevich Marín, Minister of Communications; Omar Pérez Salomón, official of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; Marisol Fuentes Ferrer, general secretary of the National Union of Communications, Information Technology and Electronics Workers and Ariadne Plasencia Castro, president of the Information Technology and Communications Business Group.