-DATE-
19841111
-YEAR-
1984
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
REPORT
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
SOVIET-CUBAN COOPERATION PROGRAM CITED
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
MOSCOW PRAVDA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19841114
-TEXT-
SOVIET-CUBAN COOPERATION PROGRAM CITED

PM121457 Moscow PRAVDA in Russian 11 Nov 84 First Edition pp 1, 5

[TASS report: "Long-Term Cooperation Program"]

[Text] During the Soviet delegation's visit, a long-term program was signed
in Havana for the development of economic, scientific, and technical
cooperation between the USSR and Cuba for the period through the year 2000.
It was signed by N.A. Tikhonov, CPSU Central Committee Politburo Member and
USSR Council of Ministers chairman, and Fidel Castro Ruz, first secretary
of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) Central Committee and president of the
Cuban Councils of State and Ministers.

The document says in part that the USSR Government and Cuban Government
have adopted a long-term program based on unity and solidarity between the
CPSU and PCC and between the Soviet and Cuban peoples and on the firm
resolve. to further develop Soviet-Cuban friendship in accordance with the
principles of Marxism-Leninism and socialist internationalism, guided by
the decisions of the CPSU and PCC congresses on the steady improvement of
their countries' economies and of the working people's well-being on that
basis.

Economic, scientific, and technical cooperation between the USSR and Cuba
is developing steadily and has reached a high level. There has been an
increase in the volume and scale of technical assistance rendered to Cuba
by the Soviet Union in the construction and modernization of national
economic facilities and the creation of the infrastructure and material and
technical base for training national cadres.

With the USSR's economic and technical assistance, a number of sectors have
been developed in Cuba that were virtually nonexistent prior to the victory
of the revolution. They include: steel production, agricultural machine
building, production equipment for the sugar industry, the electronics
industry, fertilizer production, commercial fishing, and geological
exploration of Cuba's territory.

As a result of the two countries' joint efforts, a stable foundation has
been created for the sugar industry. A high level of sugar cane harvest
mechanization has been achieved. On the basis of cooperation with the USSR,
there have been fundamental changes in the Cuban electricity industry. The
major thermal electric power stations in Mariel and Santiago de Cuba, power
lines, and other facilities have created a reliable foundation for future
progress throughout the Cuban national economy. The Cuban mining industry
has been further developed. The creation of major production capacities in
the textile industry was an important contribution to providing the Cuban
population with industrial consumer goods. Soviet assistance in the
development of land reclamation, livestock raising, poultry farming, and in
work on chemicalization and plant protection has been of great significance
for Cuban agriculture. Trade has been developing at a high rate between the
USSR and Cuba. It has nearly quintupled in the last 10 years alone.
Supplies of Soviet goods are of decisive significance for Cuba's economic
development.

The relations of cooperation between the two countries are currently
acquiring new facets. The present program document is also designed to
strengthen and further develop the plan-governed stable foundations for
long-term cooperation.

On the basis of the CPSU and PCC guidelines for the socio-economic
development of the USSR and Cuba and the decisions of the CEMA economic
sumit conference in Moscow in 1984, the sides see it as the main purpose of
long-term cooperation between the two countries to aid the completion of
the construction of the material and technical base of socialism in Cuba
and the further comprehensive improvement or the well-being and the
rational satisfaction of the growing material and spiritual needs of the
Cuban people. The Soviet Union and Cuba have agreed to develop economic and
scientific and technical cooperation in the following spheres:

Increasing the Cuban economy's efficiency, making better use of fixed
capital and available material resources and manpower, saving fuel and
materials, developing modern production processes, and accelerating the
introduction of the achievements of scientific and technical progress;

Accelerating the development of Cuba natural resources and making the
fullest and most effective use of them; accelerating the development of the
fuel and energy sectors (above all the petroleum industry), metallurgy,
certain machine building sectors, electronics, and the chemical industry;
further developing and raising the level of internal integration of
agro-industrial complex sectors in order to provide the populace with
foodstuffs and to develop exports; widening Cuba's export potential;
promoting Cuba's participation in the international socialist division of
labor within the CEMA framework;

Helping Cuba develop the production of specific types of products that will
ensure its wider participation in agreements on specialization and
production sharing within the CEMA framework on a bilateral and
multilateral basis; cooperating in modernizing, remodeling and expanding
existing and creating new production capacities in the Cuban economy;
helping to increase the volume -of trade; increasing the effectiveness of
cooperation between Cuba and the USSR by making maximum use of established
production capacities, concentrating resources on the construction of
priority facilities, and improving the quality of reciprocal goods
deliveries;

Improving forms and methods of cooperation, setting up joint enterprises
and shared production processes, and constructing facilities on a barter
basis; aiding the accelerated development of Cuban science and technology;
continuing to assist in training Cuban specialists in the USSR and in
improving their skills.

The sides deemed it expedient to focus efforts on cooperation in the
following priority spheres:

In the sphere of the agro-industrial complex: in attaining the goals of the
Cuban national food program; further developing the sugar industry;
elaborating techniques and developing the material base for the production
of products of microbiological synthesis, feed protein, and other
industrial products; developing the material base for the production and
industrial processing of citrus fruits; and developing certain food
industry subsectors.

In the fuel and energy complex sphere: in further developing Cuba's
electricity system, mainly by constructing nuclear power stations and a
thermal electric power station in the vicinity of Havana, as well as
modernizing existing thermal electric power stations and erecting power
transmission lines; developing geological survey and drilling operations;
and expanding and modernizing existing and creating new petroleum refining
capacities.

In the ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy sphere: in further expanding and
modernizing the Jose Marti Metallurgical Plant; creating new metallurgical
capacities in Holguin Province; further expanding existing and creating new
capacities for the production of nickel-cobalt product; expanding
geological prospecting for solid minerals.

In the machine building sphere: in developing the production of equipment
to meet the Cuban economy's needs and developing shared production of
certain types of construction and transport equipment.

In the electronics and electrical equipment sphere: in developing the
production of certain types of electronic equipment, including some
computer facilities and control and measuring instruments, and further
developing production of electrical consumer appliances.

In the chemical and light industry sphere: in further expanding and
creating capacities for the production of mineral fertilizers; establishing
the production of certain types of chemical and petrochemical products;
expanding, modernizing, and creating capacities for the production of
various types of paper and cardboard; and developing the production of sewn
goods and other light industry articles.

In the medical industry sphere: in organizing the industrial production of
pharmaceutical raw materials and organizing the production of some types of
medical equipment.

In the construction materials and construction industry sphere: in
developing production of waterproofing materials, sanitary engineering
articles, and ferroconcrete pipes.

In the transport and communications sphere: in reconstructing and
constructing maritime wharves and ports; developing shipments by sea; and
developing air and railroad transport.

In the sphere of science and technology: in carrying out scientific and
technical development projects connected with the national food program and
implementing scientific and technical development projects connected with
the fuel and energy complex.
-END-