ETECSA´s executive president stated that it will be impossible to reach the total of 1 00 000 lines planned for 2003. However, 47 000 new telephone lines will be installed this year(19 000 of them worked already at the closing of May) to end December with 700 000 equipment units in full service through the country.

There are still some 500 villages in the country without telephone service. An attempt is being made to develop a satellite network in order to solve this problem.

95% of the Cuban population has drinkable water

At present, 95% of the Cuban population has access to drinkable water. In the last ten years, more than 3 000 rural aqueducts have been built, in addition to the existing 18 000km of networks and conductors, 1 500 chloration stations, 241 water deposits capable of storing almost 9 000million cubic meters of water each year, 175 hydroelectrical stations, 10 plants for sewage treatment and 564 oxidation ponds, 60 potabilizing units, 759.63 kilometers of main channels, 8 large pumping stations, 2 309.52 kilometers of works in protection against floods and a wide network of laboratories and stations for the monitoring, and control of the quality of water.

Tourism also grows in the second quarter

The tourist arrival in Cuba grew at a rate of 16% in the first semester; visitor one million arrived on June 29, exactly one month earlier than in 2002 and practically with the same number of tourists of 2001, the best year up to the present. At the closing of April, Canada was the first issuing market with 250 000 visitors(42% more than the previous year) and 100 weekly regular flights from 15 Canadian cities with seven destinations in the Island. Italy, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Mexico are the other more important issuing markets.

The solidity in the recovery of tourism in Cuba is endorsed by important chains such as Sol Meliá, with an expansion plan in relevant Cuban tourist poles where it operates 22 hotels- 20% of the Island’s total tourist facilities- with 40 000 bedrooms. Its investment plan in the Island includes hotels in construction in Cayo Santa María, north of the central province of Villa Clara; Cayo Largo del Sur and eastern province of Holguín. Sol Meliá operates Cuban hotels in Ciudad de la Habana, Varadero and the keys of the central northern part of the country, plus keys Guillermo and Coco, north of the province of Ciego de Avila and Cayo Largo, in the south-western zone. The Meliá Cayo Santa Maria hotel currently in construction should be finished by the end of this year, located within a great hotel complex of 1 750 bedrooms.

Taken from: Cuba Foreign Trade