Of the triad of indicators considered fundamental in the 2022 Economy Plan in Ciego de Ávila, only net sales managed to meet (and even exceed) the forecast, generating 12,241.6 million pesos, even though 32 companies did not They came close to their planning. If we want to understand the apparent contradiction, let us think about the price increase experienced last year, at all levels.

The 1018 million pesos above the net sales plan (equivalent to 9 percent) creak if we point to the twenty companies with losses and the fair fulfillment of the plans in values ​​of another 26 of the entities in Ciego de Ávila, which made the province it will barely stay at 25.4 percent of the approved pre-tax profits.

Moreover, even more in the face of exports that, with 152 million pesos (of which 6.3 million dollars), did not even achieve 50 percent of the original design, partly because 10 entities could not honor their commitments.

The data was released by Ileana Venegas Acosta, Provincial Director of Economy and Planning (DPE), during the session corresponding to the month of January of the Provincial Council, and confirm the complexities of a year that, by all accounts, will also be present in 2023.

Precisely the highest government body in the province was informed and approved the Budget and the Economy Plan for this year, governed by prioritized objectives that seek macroeconomic stabilization, advance in the reduction of inequalities and consolidate the process of decentralization of powers to the territories, among others.

For this, the export of goods must grow to 2 million 732.7 dollars, a plan that rests only on a state company and three local development projects (PDL), and that calls for speed in the insertion of other actors, dedicated to the search for foreign currency that oxygenates the provincial economy.

Forced to increase, the retail mercantile circulation in the local activity of Commerce also appears in the report, but the planning puts its feet on the ground and is anticipating that, at the end of the year and if everything designed were fulfilled, even so, it would be experienced a slight decrease of 0.1 percent in the overall CMM. The aspiration to keep controlled the gap that opens that percentage can only materialize by making use of the prerogatives approved for the self-management of Commerce entities and the correct implementation of regulations such as Resolution 99 of the MINCIN.

Such imperatives are reinforced when reading the note in the margin of the report presented by the DPE: "The Food Balance of the central products in the current 2023 becomes very complex, with the increase in the prices of the fundamental items, they are destined for the importation of some 2000 million dollars for them, therefore, with the same amount of financial resources, less food must be purchased”.

If in 2022 the delivery for social consumption (schools, hospitals, soup kitchens) of items such as beef, eggs, wheat flour and milk behaved well below what was planned, the 2023 Plan announces a slight improvement, except for pork, which will not even reach the pyrrhic 11 percent of the last period.

In a general sense, the current year should be better in terms of fuels and investments, even though 100 percent of the steel and cement demanded will not be received. Investments include (again) the stands of the José Ramón Cepero stadium, the Turiguanó kindergarten, the expansion of the Doctor Antonio Luaces Iraola Provincial General Teaching Hospital and the administrative offices of the synthetic hockey field.

It is also planned to work in several medical offices, the Roberto Rodríguez General Teaching Provincial Hospital, in Morón, three cemeteries and at least four PDL.

However, the economy of the region will continue to be in deficit, even when that budget deficit decreases by 326.9 million pesos with respect to the previous year. This was reported by Elisbeth Díaz Rodríguez, deputy director of the Provincial Directorate of Finance and Prices, whose report concluded with an exhortation to "the execution adjusted to the notified limits, for which it will be necessary to make a more efficient use of these resources and maintain a systematic control on their allocations and applications, without compromising the quality of basic services to the population”.

The intervention of Governor Tomás Alexis Martín Venegas at this point of the work meeting was to emphasize the mandate to honor the plans and work with greater organization and adherence to the indicators provided.

Other priority issues on the government agenda

The Provincial Council also approved the housing construction plan, presented by Tania Nuez González, provincial director, knowing that what was planned in 2022 failed to materialize even 50 percent. In 2023, 1,321 must be completed, of which 277 will be through the state highway, 370 basic cells and 412 through their own effort.

Regarding this matter and assuming the work system of the country's highest management, the governing body decided to include it in the agenda of each monthly session for its timely follow-up, so that non-compliance can be corrected on time. For this reason, this week it was already known that at the end of January the province completed 90 homes out of a plan of 88.

At the close of the work meeting, after the approval of the Cybersecurity Commission and the delivery of recognition for her outstanding career to Juana María Rodríguez Cepero, a veteran provincial government official, member of the Central Committee of the Party and its first secretary in Ciego de Ávila Liván Izquierdo Alonso indicated that attention to rural areas be included in the prioritized government programs.

In this sense, he said, it is necessary to look at the countryside with different eyes and transform the prevailing reality there, in order to improve the living conditions of these communities, recover infrastructures and revitalize productive processes that contribute to the development of the province and the country.