The first edition of the International Transport and Logistics Fair held in Cuba ended this Thursday with great joy but without much precision. Industry Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila said nearly 40 contracts and more than 100 agreements and business intentions for land, sea and air had been signed.
The only information on it is the railway improvement project signed with a Chinese company, a project already attempted with Russia and shut down by Moscow due to repeated non-compliance by the Cuban side.
The Union of Cuban Railways (UFC) and Beijing Fanglian Technology signed “two letters of intent to gradually restore part of the railway infrastructure” last Tuesday, as the official press called the agreement.
The points of the pact include the restoration of the railway and locomotive workshops located in the Mariel Special Development Zone and the import of parts and equipment.
Luis Roberto Roses Hernández, general director of the UFC, said that this would make it possible to “acquire the necessary parts for the maintenance of large Chinese locomotives and the gradual improvement of their reliability, guaranteeing a better quality of service in freight and passenger traffic”.
Apart from this agreement, which for the time being reflects an intention, Rodríguez Dávila trusted that the event served to “renew old contacts and establish new ones” in order to restore the sustainable development of transport in Cuba.
“The supply deficit” is due to “the insufficient technical availability of the media and the diesel fuel due to the pressure from Washington”.
It was also time to blame the US for the poor quality of service. Carlos Alberto González González, deputy director of the Directorate of Passenger Transport, said that “the supply deficit” was due to “the insufficient technical availability of funds and diesel fuel due to the pressure exerted by Washington”. In addition, an official statement from the ministry highlights that “the complex context” – which also affects the cargo – is due to the “blockade by the United States government”.
In October 2019, Cuba experienced the prequel to the episode that just happened with China. At that time, the Russian state railway RZD signed an agreement with the Union of Cuban Railways to modernize the entire Cuban railway structure. Funding came from Moscow in the amount of 2,314 million dollars, which in this case was intended for the modernization of the infrastructure (1,000 kilometers of track, material, technology and training) and a traffic control center.
At the end of 2020, the director of RZD Sergey Pavlov temporarily ended the project. “Unfortunately, due to economic difficulties and quarantine restrictions on the island, we had to suspend our major modernization project for Cuba’s railway infrastructure, but we hope to resume work after the situation stabilizes,” he said.
During this phase, Russia sent locomotives to the island, but railway sector sources told 14ymedio that the machines were not adequate for the country’s reality. “They are high fuel consumers. They require a large amount of fuel to run compared to other locomotives on the market and it is already known that this is a problem here as the supply we have is not always stable,” they affirmed.
The standstill of the Russian railways continues to this day. In 2020, the Executive Secretary of the Russian-Cuban Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Oleg Kucheriáviy warned of the massive cancellation of investments in Cuba due to non-compliance with Havana.
The official told the Russian press that of the 60 joint projects, only ten would be implemented, and at a meeting of the Senate Commission on International Affairs, he pointed out that the last meeting of the intergovernmental commission, which was to be held on the island, was due Canceled “silence” and “hesitation” on the part of the Cuban authorities.
None of this has improved, and collective transport is stuck in the past with nothing other than transporting some equipment that is clearly inadequate.
In addition, Yuri I. Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and responsible for economic relations with Cuba since 2018, said in reference to the Cuban side. “They’re complicated businessmen, I won’t hide it, the mentality of the past weighs on them all the time. During the negotiations, in the positions they take, it always seems that we are an outpost of the world revolution and they just have that to help us,” he revealed.
With the pandemic hitting the island particularly hard in 2021, none of that has improved and collective transport is stuck in the past, with nothing other than shipping some equipment that is clearly inadequate, like the electric buses of Japan or Belgium buses.
The only announcement backed by the authorities is the creation of the title of Transportation Engineering, a new career that will train professionals in the management of human and material resources in the sector.
“The new traffic engineer will participate in the technology transfer processes, act with economic conscience and respect the Cuban reality and master the legal elements related to his professional activity,” said Juan Cogollos, President of the National Careers Commission and professor-holder of the University of Cienfuegos, where the specialty is taught.
The new course lasts four years and includes subjects such as traffic engineering, electricity and automation, statistics and operational research, economics and process management, as well as traffic engineering and operations.
Authorities announced that graduates will be able to work in the Department of Transport and its business system, in the private sector and other organizations related to the field at a time when young people seem rather encouraged due to a lack of opportunities who leaving the island or the miserable salaries they get after years of study.
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