-DATE- 19871229 -YEAR- 1987 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- REPORT -AUTHOR- F.CASTRO -HEADLINE- CASTRO REVIEWS "DIFFICULT' YEAR -PLACE- PALACE OF CONVENTIONS -SOURCE- HAVANA TELEVISION SVC -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19880104 -TEXT- Fidel Castro Reviews 'Difficult' Year FL010000 Havana Television Service in Spanish 0100 GMT 29 Dec 87 [Report by Lucia Gonzalez from Palace of Conventions] [Text] The draft for the country's 1988 General Economic and Social Development Plan and budget was approved this afternoon by the Cuban parliament. The bill was drawn up with extensive participation from the state organizations and territories, and further enriched with the workers' input. Next year, limitations on the availability of freely convertible currency will be maintained, although the effects will be kept to a minimum. Therefore, increased exports, tourism development, and imports substitution continue to be of vital importance for the Cuban economy. The main objective will be to make products more varied, to extend the social projects program throughout the country, and of course, to generally maintain the consumption levels of the population. The investment plan will be guaranteed, although the established priorities are eliminated. The basic aims are now to ensure completion of projects and to channel efforts toward the most important economic and social objectives. In one of his comments, Deputy Fidel Castro made an analysis of the year that is about to end. [Begin Castro recording] I think we have gone through one of the most critical and difficult years, one most full of stumbling blocks of all kinds. We worked with much care throughout the year. I think the country has made a truly heroic effort in 1987. It cannot be described here with easy, simple words. The first conclusion is we have not grown in volume but I think we have progressed considerably this year. I would say that doing what has been done in 1987, in the conditions in which it has been done, actually constitutes a heroic feat by our people. In almost all areas, there was a much more serious effort in construction and industry, a very serious effort in the rectification process against high salaries without the work to justify them, as well as a great effort in agriculture, sugarcane sowing plans, sugarcane cleaning. We have manually cleaned more sugarcane than ever. Administrative officials came down to the sugarcane fields to clean up during all those months. We have really been able to surmount with successes and encouraging results, with encouraging results [repeats himself] the most difficult year; or, well, one of the most difficult years. We will keep having difficult years. We cannot even for a second imagine that the others are not very difficult or as difficult as this one. We will have them in 1988, 1989, and maybe even 1990. These must be years of heroic feats by our people. As I said, doing what has been done with the minimum resources available to us from the freely convertible currency area, I say, was really a heroic effort. This does not mean we should be satisfied. I can say that approximately 300,000 more tons of cement have been used in construction. We have used more cement, sand, rock, more of everything. We have finished many [incomplete] projects because many of these commercialized enterprises were interested in only one thing. They would begin a project, move the land; this meant a lot of accumulated value. They would put up four columns and then they wouldn't go on building, because finishing would produce little value. You have to keep giving...[changes thought] They start with a bulldozer and finish with a screwdriver, by hand, installing a bolt, a valve; that was the kind of finishing they did. The truth is we will have to examine all those things carefully, see how much influence the price reduction had. The truth is we have invested more materials in construction. That is, much more has been built. Above all, this effort's main purpose is to find the solution to important economic or social problems. I think the best thing about all this is we can begin to face severe social problems without affecting in the least the economic development of the country. All of our great energy projects, including the electronuclear plant, oil refinery, exploration, drilling, and nickel plants are beginning to show more potential because we have finally started to get things rolling and more. We have found a way to deal with the serious problems we had in the famous Punta Gorda factory. The construction of the CEMA I plant is once again gaining new momentum. All fundamental industries--mechanical, energy, mining, food, and light industry, all the areas, and the most important ones--are coming along; they have been taken care of, and are developing at a greater pace. One of the things we have done during 1987 is to create the conditions so that 1988 will begin, from the very 1st day, as it is supposed to begin. And it will not begin from the 1st day, it will begin from the 4th day. Because we have Friday the 1st, Saturday, and Sunday, and I think it is fair that during those days people rest. We have even imposed an obligatory rest on the minibrigades from the capital. Obligatory rest on 1, 2, and 3 January. We do not want people to arrive all worn-out on 4 January. We want them to arrive with the desire to gobble up the projects, to build it all. [End Castro recording] -END-