Housing program: a transformation imperative (+ Photos)

Havana, Nov 27.- The numbers and analyzes confirm it once again: We are closing the year and the projections of the housing plan will not be met as planned. At the end of October, only around 13,300 properties in the country were completed, for 54% of the annual plan. The lack of cement and steel continues to be the great Achilles heel, but also the methods and forms of work.

That is why the analyzes and indications given in the most recent meeting of the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, with the governors and the mayor of the Isle of Youth were so profound, where it was reiterated that this is one of the prioritized programs in the country due to their scope for the benefit of the population and what they contribute to social development.

The review of the housing program is not new, but its materialization is becoming more and more urgent, because as was said in the meeting—held by videoconference from the Palace of the Revolution—an additional effort can still be made to advance its compliance.

In this sense, the Head of Government stressed the urgency of reorienting work systems with an approach based on demand and control to achieve better results. “We have to start a different system and promote this as an essential, social, revolutionary movement, to be able to provide a response to the population.”

In addition, he insisted on issues related to housing prices, the role of construction companies, the typologies of homes, that all organizations build homes, how families are involved in the construction of their homes, as well as the local production of construction materials, with emphasis on the manufacture of fired red ceramic elements, as explained at the meeting.

In this regard, Dilaila Díaz Fernández, general director of materials at the Ministry of Construction, said that to achieve the productive levels of this product that ensures the deficit declared in the Housing Program, 83 million bricks need to be produced per year. “In 2022, 39 million were achieved (47% of the need) and it was the best production in terms of the number of bricks in the 12 years since the local materials production program was established.”

So far in 2023, four million more bricks have been delivered than in the same period of the previous year, however, only 52% of the need has been met. In this sense, Díaz Fernández assured that it is necessary to accelerate the increase in production capacities. There is, she said, ovens to be built, efficient ovens, moulds, extruders, mixers, and all of this has to be done with local resources. “You have to design and build with red ceramic solutions.”

For his part, René Mesa Villafaña, Minister of Construction, explained that the organization has reiterated the importance of local production, which is the heart of the housing program. "In each province we have insisted on how to develop this local production and how we are going to multiply the cement that is delivered, although with clay we can make everything that is floor, wall and ceiling elements."

In that same line of thought, Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, vice prime minister, recalled that there is a study on the clay route in Cuba. “That's up. Where is? There are instructions to build the ovens. The plans are delivered to the territories. Do they do it? They don't do it. Why don't they do it? What is the discipline? What is the control? There are indications and it is simply not carried out in the territory,” he stated.

Towards the end of the analysis, the Prime Minister demanded to create all the conditions to ensure next year's housing construction plan. “We need the population to see that in this complex, sensitive issue that affects so many people block by block, there is an additional effort, there is a different way in which this program has been focused, which is more participatory than ever, that companies are helping, that there is popular participation, that there is a different system to check it.

“Things cannot take forever to finish. We have spoken several times about this dissatisfaction, but this is an issue that can be transformed, even with the complexity of steel and cement," reiterated the Head of Government, who called for demand and control.

Economic actors on the agenda

During the meeting, the updating of the legal regulations of non-state economic actors and the relationships between state and non-state entities were also addressed, a process in which all the provinces have participated and which is now being analyzed again with all the agencies of the Central State Administration, state institutions and territories, as explained by Johana Odriozola Guitar, vice minister of Economy and Planning.

Among the essential changes proposed, he mentioned the decentralization at the municipal level of the approvals of the new economic actors, which will be a gradual process. There is also the creation of a National Institute of Non-State Economic Actors, subordinate to the Council of Ministers. It will not have a vertical structure, based on the existence of the Territorial Development Directorates.

Regarding the legal norms for relations between state and non-state entities, Odriozola Guitar specified that this seeks to achieve greater integration between economic actors to provide a timely response to the demands of the internal market, both of the productive sector and of the population and promote productive chains in the national territory.

Likewise, she pointed out that this will allow us to take advantage of idle capacities in our industry, the increase in the supply of goods and services, the increase in the income of workers in state companies from the increase in activity levels, the repair of lines productive areas that are not working, the identification of new business opportunities, as well as the negotiation of prices.

At the meeting, information was also provided on the status of the preparation of the Economy and Budget Plan for next year. The reduction of the fiscal deficit and the principles of equity and social justice are maintained as premises. Financing will be focused on the social sectors, attention to situations of vulnerability and territorial development.

This requires, said Mildred Granadillo de la Torre, First Deputy Minister of Economy and Planning, improving the budgetary result, transforming the control systems, attracting greater income, covering expenses that are priorities for the country and, of course, increasing efficiency in public spending.

By the way, the Prime Minister emphasized that next year it is necessary to strengthen the role of the Government in economic and social matters. “We have to face 2024 in a different way. We are going to have the same challenges, the intensified blockade, the same foreign currency limitations, fuel problems... Therefore, we do not have the right to make a plan that is more of the same and that does not foresee different things.

“2024 has to be very fair, but more demanding in compliance with what is established. The fewer resources, the more planning. We have to play our corresponding role, we have to transform the Government's control of food production, taking into account that 80% is in people and non-state productive forms, as well as strengthen the local development strategy, based on of the real potential of the municipalities to satisfy the demands of the population.”

A new anniversary of the Revolution

Taking into account the current scenario and the availability of resources, ensuring activities for the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution was also part of the analysis at the meeting of governors. The proposed plan brings together participatory actions, with the home, workplaces, communities and virtual space as the main scenario. In addition, emphasis was placed on guaranteeing offers of agricultural products, proteins and other foods for the population.

The Head of Government called to ensure internal order and social discipline, prioritize care for people and families in vulnerable situations, organize the distribution of resources and accelerate their delivery, guarantee vital activities for the economy and society, as well as how to design community initiatives supported by endogenous resources.

In this matter, he expressed, “we are not trying to give a recipe for generalization throughout the country of what the end of the year should be like. There is no recipe. Therefore, this will depend largely on the leadership capacity of the Governments in each territory, on how to fully exploit their own potential, both spiritually and materially, and put together a great movement in tribute to the triumph of the Revolution and the people who work so hard and have had to face so much.” (Cuba Presidency) (Photos: Revolución Studies)