The president of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), Esteban Lazo Hernandezcriticized the MSMEs importers of finished products because they consider that they do not bring wealth to the country.
During a government visit to various product manufacturing centers in Guanabacoa, in Havana, the communist leader called increase the import of raw materials to produce in Cuba, arguing that the island has “powerful industries” that must be taken advantage of.
“Of the more than 8,500 MSMEs that we have, the majority are marketers, that is, they do not create wealth in the country. If they buy finished products, it is logical that later the prices they set have to be high,” said Lazo, finding an explanation for the high prices at which most MSMEs sell.
“One of the things that we should try to do by all means is what you are doing, is import raw material and produce here. We have a powerful light industry, a powerful food industry and a powerful basic industry.”, added the senior official, who did not take into account in his analysis the impoverished, dilapidated and overexploited machinery of the industries that he described as powerful.
Lazo Hernández’s statements also ignore a reality that dates back decades: The state economy is also highly dependent on the importation of finished goods, precisely because it lacks this industrial power. that the president of the National Assembly attributes to the Cuban reality.
“That we don’t lose our human capital, that we don’t go backwards, but rather that we continue to develop,” concluded Lazo in the company of the government delegation that visited the MIPYME Producciones Muhia (Useful Hands of the Hogar Inés and Alberto), a development project local of the Guanabacoa municipality.
According to Inés de la Caridad Vega, the venture she runs has 25 production lines, including different types of liquid detergents, shampoo, cosmetics, conditioners, essential oils, and soaps. In total, the factory employs 39 workers, but they have problems with access to packaging to market their products.
It is not the first time in recent weeks that Lazo has lashed out against imports and calls for increasing production as soon as possible.
In mid-July, the president of the National Assembly spoke harshly to the deputies of the agri-food commission, from whom he demanded fewer programs, measures, studies, diagnoses, and more results: an increase in production and more food for the people. In a day where the failure of the Food Sovereignty Law, approved just over a year ago, was confirmed, the highest figure in the Cuban parliament did not hide his discomfort.
“The state company is not fulfilling its role. All you have explained there are the implementations… I haven’t heard about the results yet. Where are the results of all that? The strength is that what was agreed upon has been fulfilled,” said Lazo, visibly upset.
In another moment of his speech, Lazo Hernández recalled that the country does not have money to import food and that practically 100 percent of the family basket today is being imported. He referred to years before the pandemic in which the production of rice, beans, pork and milk was visibly higher.
