Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960710164311.16268C-100000@sparc> Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 16:43:24 -0300 From: Mike Gurstein <mailto:mgurst@SPARC.UCCB.NS.CA> Subject: AID and Development: 09 July 1996 (fwd) To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
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AID and Development: 09 July 1996
Table of Contents: o /IPS DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN 02/ CUBA-TECHNOLOGY: Government has Big
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Copyright 1996 InterPress Service, all rights reserved. Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 06-Jul-96 ***
/IPS DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN 02/ CUBA-TECHNOLOGY: Government has Big Hopes for Information Sector
By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Jul 5 (IPS) - The government of President Fidel Castro has decided to expand Cuba's involvement in information and information technology, sectors which -- with the Internet at its core -- are developing at rapid pace.
Anxious to replace the sugar industry as the country's main source of revenue, authorities are looking towards the information technology market -- a colossal business that far surpasses the potential of even tourism.
Combined earnings of the world's airlines totalled 371 billion dollars last year, while income from informatics was an even more awesome 543 billion dollars.
Local experts say Decree 209, passed in June to integrate Cuba into global information networks, demonstrates the government's decision to make progress in that industry. ''There is no alternative, and we must not lose time,'' Vice-President Carlos Lage told a seminar on Cuba's involvement in the Internet, the global computer network.
According to the National Statistics Office, Cuba has five university graduates and 12 holders of intermediate technical degrees for every 100 inhabitants. There are 30,000 graduates in informatics and 15,000 in related areas.
The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reports that Cuba has 1,369 scientists and engineers per million inhabitants, the majority of whom are computer science experts.
That figure puts the country ahead of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain and China, and on the same level as Italy, one of the world economy's seven biggest, according to UNESCO.
The human potential is added to a national network of 150 computer centres, the installations of which can even be found in remote mountain settlements. More than 800 instructors and 1,000 machines are available to serve anyone interested.
The government's initial strategy is concentrated on the enticing possibilities offered by the international software market, which has a turnover of 80 billion dollars a year.
Experts forecast an annual growth rate of up to 10 percent for the sector, where major investment is not needed and per employee productivity is high. According to some calculations, the output of a good software specialist is valued at from 100,000-300,000 dollars a year.
Local economists estimate that if Cuba had 1,000 good programmers, the country could take in from 200 to 300 million dollars, a third of what it presently earns through tourism -- but with 60 times less personnel.
There are precedents such as the company Eicisoft, which in the 1980s demonstrated the potential of a small group of specialists in programming, who sold software to Japan.
Medical equipment created by the National Centre on Scientific Research, with national software incorporated, has also been well accepted in Latin American, European and Asian markets.
Cuba may also specialise in the digitalisation of information that is still filed on paper -- the transferring of millions of documents to machines.
Each year, 500 billion pages of information are produced worldwide, a figure that will increase nearly sevenfold in 2046, according to experts. The hard disk of a PC with one gigabyte of capacity can save the printing of two million pages, equivalent to 4,000 500-page books.
''There won't be enough forests on the planet to meet the demand for paper,'' said Jorge Gomez, an analyst with an information centre. ''But furthermore, what would we do without electronic computer systems, capable of instantaneously finding a 'needle in a haystack'?''
Sources close to the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA) told IPS that the possibility of working from home through computers is another area that interests Cuban authorities.
Without major investments and obviating problems of transport, ''virtual companies'' already exist around the world where all the work is communicated through home computers.
Such interconnected computer networks could mean not only the necessary modernisation for Cuba's future economy, but also a source of jobs and increasingly productive and well-trained personnel.
For the time being, Cuba's upcoming connection to Internet, the planet's biggest computer network, will provide access to a giant market of 20 million potential clients.
The so-called ''network of networks'' allows activities ranging from direct participation in enormous discussion groups to access to ''virtual businesses'' that function with no personal contact between the parties involved.
Authorities seem attracted by the possibility of a Havana entrepreneur closing a deal with his or her counterpart in Madrid directly through a computer, without intermediaries who make the product more expensive.
But the government is moving cautiously because besides the undeniable advantages of access to the global information networks, it is concerned about possible ''ideological dangers'' related to the tension between Cuba and the United States.
The government has created a commission to determine rules of the game. It is presided over by a government minister. Among the priorities being focussed on are modernising and increasing the total number of computers in the country and improving communication networks.
With that aim, the State is speedily developing a one billion peso (one peso is roughly equivalent to the U.S. dollar at the official rate) investment programme to conclude the national network of fibre optic cables and the installation of one million digitalised lines. (END/IPS/tra-so/da/ff/sw/96)
Origin: Amsterdam//IPS DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN 02/ CUBA-TECHNOLOGY/ ----
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