Cuba

1
Cuba

• Maria Enea
• Jacob Klein
• Kirk Lauterbach
• Jon Machak

2
Cuba
3
Geography

• Located between Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic
  Ocean
• 150 km south of Florida
• 110,860 km² total
• Equivalent to Pennsylvania
• 3,735 km of coastline
• Largest country Caribbean

• Cobalt, nickel, iron ore, copper, manganese,
  salt, timber, and petroleum
• 33 Arable land (U.S. 19)
• Droughts and hurricanes
• Tropical climate with both rainy and dry seasons
• Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base

4
Demographics

• Population 11,263,429
• Life Expectancy
• Male 74.4, Female 79.3
• Nationality Cuban
• Ethnic Groups
• Mulatto 51, White 37, Black 11, Chinese 1
• Religions
• 85 Roman Catholic, 15 Protestant, Jehovahs
  Witness, Jews, Santeria
• Languages Spanish

• Illegal Migration is Problem
• 2500 in 2002
• Cubans attempt to enter the US via rafts
• Alien smugglers
• Direct flights
• Falsified Visas

5
Culture

• Modernism replaced Romanticism in the 20th
  Century
• Cultural blend of African and Spanish visual
  expressions
• Many famous Cuban Romantic writers left for exile
• Urban-Afro images and Cuban Revolution paintings
• Architecture ranges from Castles to modern
  economical housing
• Caribbean Music and Salsa
• Large National library and Museum

Design influenced by the US flag.
6
Economics

• GDP 25.9 billion
• Economic Turmoil
• Depression during 1990s
• Hurricane Isidore / Lili Damage
• Tourism slump after 9/11
• Labor Force 4.3 million
• 24 Agriculture
• 25 Industry
• 51 Service

• 12.3 billion in Debt 15-20 billion owed to
  Russia
• INDUSTRY Sugar, petroleum, tobacco, chemicals,
  construction, nickel, steel, cement, machinery,
  biotechnology
• Cuban peso (CUP)
• 1 USD 27 CUP

7
Politics

• Communist State
• Fidel Castro president since 1959
• Cuban Communist Party or PCC
• Capital city Havana
• 14 Provinces
• Obtained independence from Spain in 1902

• Legislative Branch National Assembly of
  Peoples Power
• Peoples Supreme Court
• Judges elected by National Assembly
• Legal System
• Based on Spanish and American Law
• Large Elements of Communist legal theory

8
Education

• Government controls educational system provides
  education for all children
• Literacy Rate 97
• Castro established literacy brigades during the
  1960s
• Primary and Secondary Education consist or
  Marxist Principles
• Capitalism is an opposing world organization
• Public health, elementary education, cooking,
  moral standards, revolutionary loyalty
• 3 major Universities / dozens of polytechnic
  schools
• U of Havana, U of Santa Clara, U of Santiago
• High-Level (Grad Classes) offered in business,
  medicine, nursing, engineering

9
Characteristics

• Cuba plays the primary role in the economy
• Cuba controls nearly all foreign trade as well as
  internal development
• The Cuban government does not have substantial
  economic resources with which to fund IT
  investments.

10
Vision

• Telemedicine, Biotechnology, and Multimedia will
  guide the Cuban IT future
• Outsourcing of software professionals will
  provide money for the government
• The expansion of the high-tech industry will be
  encouraged, primarily through the continued
  development of university programs.

11
Program for the Information Society in Cuba

• Outlined in 1997. It aims for the massive use of
  the Information and Communication Technologies
  (ICT) with the following general objectives
• To increase the efficiency and competitiveness of
  production and services, improving their quality
  and decreasing their material and energy
  consumption.
• To increase the effectiveness and to ease the
  decision making process of government and the
  administration through the availability of
  reliable and updated information at all the
  levels.
• To generate a source of revenue for Cuba through
  the export of products and services of the
  national software industry.

12
Program for the Information Society in Cuba

• General objectives (cont.)
• To raise the quality of the public services,
  especially in the education, health and social
  security sectors.
• To improve the quality of the services that the
  Popular Administration Councils offers by
  diminishing the average time and the steps that
  the citizen must carry out.
• To offer to the world, by means of Internet,
  trustworthy information about Cuba, its
  political, social and economic reality.
• To offer to researchers, educators, students,
  functionaries and any interested person, access
  to information that exist in the Internet and in
  other electronic formats.

13
Ministry of Informatics and Communications

• Lines of action
• Computer science
• Telecommunications
• Information Networks
• Value Added Services
• Broadcasting
• Radio electrical spectrum
• Postal communications
• Automation
• Electronic industry

• Created in January 2000

14
Cubas Economy and IT

• State plays primary role in Cuban economy and
  controls all internal development including IT
• No substantial economic resources to fund IT
  investments
• Struggling economically

15
Cubas Economy and IT Cont.

• Most IT is funded by foreign investment
• Actively solicit foreign direct investment
• Relied heavily on Soviet Union for financial aid
  before 1991
• After collapse of Soviet Union, economy faltered
• Many short term loans, a lot of debt

16
Cubas Economy and IT Cont.

• Cuba does not allow free flow of information
  from, to, or within the nation
• Fear that Internet will lead to greater freedom
  of expression
• Recognized that internet can be a source of
  economic productivity
• Conflicting interests

17
Cubas Economy and IT Cont.

• Communication technology important for economic
  growth
• Government fears that this could lead to freedom
  of internal and external expression which could
  threaten the regime
• Cuba is positive towards the growth of IT, but
  want to keep political information away from the
  people

18
Cubas Economy and IT Cont.

• Few resources for developing IT, must depend on
  attracting foreign companies
• Expansion is difficult
• Have no hard currency, use currency not accepted
  in the global market
• In spite of political risks, government realizes
  that IT is necessary for the economy

19
Investment Pros

• Prime location in Caribbean
• Highly educated population capable of operating
  in a global sales venture
• Biotech leader

• Skilled IS workforce with which to support
  distribution and manufacturing operations
• Lower labor costs

20
Investment Cons

• Political sanctions limit potential trade
  opportunities
• Cuban government's discouragement of capitalism
• Sales and promotional efforts restricted by
  government
• Lack of skilled IS workforce

• Interministerial Commission has restricted all
  Internet access almost all private endeavors
• Economic difficulties make Cuban expansion
  difficult.
• The country lacks hard currency and operates in a
  currency that is not accepted on the global
  markets

21
Strengths

• The Cuban population is one of the most educated
  amongst developing nations
• Labor costs are lower than for most software
  developing countries

• Cuba is already recognized as a leader in
  biotechnology
• The Cuban government is fostering FDI

22
Weaknesses

• Inadequate domestic IT/telecommunications
  infrastructure
• Price and availability of Internet technology and
  services
• Government control of all Cuban marketplaces,
  e-commerce, and trade

• Lack of IT growth in the domestic marketplace
• Training/IT infrastructure based on obsolete
  technology

23
Opportunities

• Poor IT infrastructure provides growth
  opportunities for wireless technologies
• Market penetration of PCs in the home and
  businesses is very low

• Internet access is provided by one provider

24
Threats

• High piracy rates/lack of value ascribed to
  software development
• Low financial support for the IT industry

• Cuba's inability to attract foreign aid and FDI
• International political sanctions

25
The Bottom Line

• Do not waste time and money investing IT in Cuba
• IT will not be successful in Cuba until the
  political, economic, and technological
  environments are improved