If the potentialities and future of local development in the Ciego de Ávila municipality of Florencia are taken into account, it is evident that the Program for Strengthening Municipal Capacities for Local Development (PRODEL) has not advanced sufficiently during the year 2022, since it has reduced to starting the same projects that years ago could not find a way to come together definitively.

At the beginning of last June, Invasor reported on the set-up of an ice cream factory, which at that time did not have enough raw material to start production or a place to sell the product to the population, a situation that is solved today.

Julio Valentín Santana Cruz, coordinator of PRODEL in Florencia, highlights the effort involved in starting production. “First, guarantee the supply of milk and then find elements that would replace the stabilizer and sugar used in the production process due to the scarcity of both. Ultimately, cornstarch and honey proved to be effective substitutes."

This week the managers in charge of the factory incorporated another machine of Cuban origin, specialized in dispensing ice cream in cones. Additionally, the producers announced that they intend to create, whenever possible, the conditions to prepare the sweets that complete the current menu on their own.

Another local development project that will see the light of day in the short term is that of the construction materials factory located in the Guadalupe People's Council. It will take the final leap after the request of the self-employed worker Rainer Ortega Suárez to administer it, which has already been approved by the Municipal Administration Council and is in the process of corresponding procedures.

The will of all parties is that the productive works begin in December of this year or January 2023. This execution will be vital for the municipality, since the direct benefit of this activity is added to the fact that in Florence there is no Unit Business Base for the production of construction materials, but it depends on the existing one in the municipality of Chambas.

However, there is still a long way to go to finalize several projects that have been waiting to start, in some cases for four years (October 2018). In Julio Santana's opinion, this is due to the obstruction of some procedures, fundamentally financial, and the poor assimilation by the population and some organizations of the benefits of a local development project.

In this sense, the communication campaign Development begins here advances, whose launch took place in Florence last June, and its fundamental objective is to bring people and organizations closer to knowledge about the capacities of local development adapted to the potentialities of the territory.

As part of it, on Sunday October 23 there will be a fair that will include the participation of all the projects of the municipality as an exhibition and sales to the population, as well as sports and cultural activities.