02 June 2021

Approval of the Cuban standard project ISO IEC 25020 SQuaRE Quality Measurement Framework.

This June 1, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Communications, Subcommittee 7 on Software and Systems Engineering * approved the draft Cuban standard ISO / IEC 25020 SQuaRE - Quality Measurement Framework. This new standard will replace the Cuban standard approved in 2016, based on an international version published in 2019. Within the standard, a quality measurement reference model is proposed. Objects of analysis can be information technology systems, software products, data, or services. The standard will be delivered to the National Standardization Office for final approval and publication, as announced by the Vice Minister of Communications, Grisel Reyes León on his personal Facebook account. * Subcommittee 7 - Software and Systems Engineering (SC7) belongs to the Technical Committee for Standardization No 18 - Information Technologies (CTN18). Both CTN18 and SC7 are homologous by the Cuban part of international standardization organizations, in particular, JTC ISO / IEC 1 Information Technology and SC 7 System and Software Engineering.

02 June 2021

The Council of Ministers of Cuba approves the improvement of actors in the Cuban economy.

The Council of Ministers approved in its most recent session the improvement of the actors of the Cuban economy, which includes the socialist state enterprise; non-agricultural cooperatives; to micro, small and medium enterprises (MIPYMES); and self-employment, all summoned to promote, each one from his own sphere, the development of the nation. With this decision we are approving how to order the actors that intervene in our economic scenario, which goes beyond the simple recognition of any of them; considered the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez. As an essential principle to carry out this improvement, the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, assured when presenting the issue that it is ratified that the state company is the main subject of the national economy and as such has to perform. Among other principles, it also ratified that the expansion of activities of non-state forms of management does not lead to a privatization process, since there are limits that cannot be exceeded. "Recognizing, diversifying and strengthening the management of economic actors" is another of the guidelines drawn up to advance in the urgent improvement, from which "each economic actor adjusts to what it really should be." Referring in particular to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, he explained that they will be established in the state and private sectors, and for both similar conditions will be established in management.

26 May 2021

Effects of the blockade on the Cuban Communications System.

Executives of this sector in Cuba exposed in a press conference the economic damages caused to the Communications System, as a consequence of the unjust US blockade of Cuba. They participated in the exchange with national and foreign journalists, Wilfredo González Vidal, First Vice Minister of Communications; Ariadne Plasencia Castro, president of the Informatics and Communications Business Group and Ailyn Febles Estrada, president of the Union of Informatics of Cuba. The economic damages and losses caused to the Communications System, as a consequence of the unjust US blockade of Cuba, are evident throughout the sector, in Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Postal Services. The blockade continues to be the main impediment to a better flow of information and a wider access to the Internet and ICT in general by the Cuban people. Connectivity is made more expensive, access to certain platforms and technologies is prohibited, and cyberspace is used to try to subvert the country's political system. The Internet task force for Cuba, created in 2017 by the US government, is an example of a mechanism created to subvert or influence the internal order of the country and determine the efforts in the development of the Internet, an issue that By its own and sovereign decision, the government of Cuba is promoting as part of the strategy of the process of computerization of society. The economic damages in the period April to December 2020, are quantified at 65 million 493 thousand 280 USD. As in previous years, the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) continues to be the entity with the greatest damage, more than 98%. The main effects are given by three fundamental concepts: 1. Limited supply of technologies and equipment produced under license or using North American components, which implies that it is necessary to go to the purchase in other markets, much more distant. This concept is the main obstacle by which the major impacts caused by the bloc in the Communications sector are quantified. More than 90% are in this condition. There is an important limitation on this first concept, and that is that Cuba cannot acquire articles that contain more than 10% of US components. Measure again imposed by the US Department of Commerce, effective October 2019.