The percentage of state investments in innovation fell from 1.14% in 2011 to 0.55% in 2023
14ymedio, Madrid, June 10, 2024 — The latest voluntary illusion that the Cuban Government seems to cling to in recent weeks is science, technology and innovation. The minister of the sector, Eduardo Martínez Díaz, a few days ago in a meeting led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, insisted on this mantra: “The formula to get out of the situation that we have is by using science, introducing its results, applying technologies and innovating in all aspects.”
This Monday, the official press repeats the issue, in an article signed by the same Minister of Science, Technology and the Environment and his deputy minister, Armando Rodríguez Batista, where they explain the “priorities” when implementing the plan. Within an imprecise list of wishes – such as “orienting science and innovation projects more to the solution of specific problems,” “achieving greater interconnectivity between actors” and “enhancing incentives for innovation at different levels” – one objective stands out: “increase investment in research and development activity.”
In addition to including in this the “financing in convertible currencies,” the officials emphasize that at the same time it is necessary to “diversify the sources,” opening the door to private investment, although without saying it specifically.
At no time is it mentioned where and how that money could come from
Outside the text, in a graph, it is asserted that 2,184 million pesos are “planned” for “17 national programs, 10 sectoral programs and 63 territorial programs in the area of technology and innovation.” 525 million pesos are included for the National Science and Innovation Fund and 100 million for the National Environment Fund. At no time is it mentioned where and how that money could come from.
The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal has not been long in questioning the numbers, and demolishing, in a long thread on X, the plan of “improvement of the System of Science, Technology and Innovation,” which, it seems to him, “casts more shade than light.”
First of all, he asserts that with a national investment of almost 97 billion pesos in 2023 in all sectors – “a level in itself insufficient for economic recovery,” he clarifies -“the figures that are announced for ‘support for science and innovation’ are simply not relevant.” It is “one of the most insignificant sectors in Cuba,” Monreal continues, with an average of 0.81% between 2011 and 2023, “very distant from tourism investment.”
The economist concedes that the regime recognizes that the relative weight of investment in science and innovation is insufficient, but then, “the reasoning becomes confused by identifying it as a problem of statistical ‘underregistration’.” If the current weight were doubled, Monreal suggests, from 0.55% to 1.1%, “science-innovation would remain one of the five least relevant sectors in innovative investment.”
If the current weight were doubled, Monreal suggests, from 0.55% to 1.1%, “science-innovation would continue to be one of the five least relevant sectors in innovative investment
In the graph shared by the economist, in fact, it is striking that the State dedicated only 0.55% of its total investments to that sector in 2023, much less than in 2011, when it gave it 1.14%.
Similarly, the specialist strongly states that “there seems to be some official difficulty in understanding the scale of the innovative investment deficit, the part of the institutional fabric where it should be concentrated, the high risk of that type of investment and the viability of possible sources of financing,” and he criticizes: “Assuming that in Cuba innovation would be promoted without a significant jump in investment in innovation at the company level (not only in research centers) is an incorrect assumption.”
Another “serious problem” of the official explanation observed by Monreal is that “the financing of innovative investment is mainly posed as one of abstract longing” and that the “key point” of “the sources of business financing” is not clear. “The profits would be insufficient,” he says.
A true investment in innovation, he says, “is a long-term, high-risk process, and therefore very difficult to predict in terms of results and return on investment. The Cuban business system has neither effective economic calculation, nor diversity of ownership in firms with scale, nor access to decentralized financing mechanisms, nor the competitive environment necessary for them to function as a locus of innovation,” Monreal concludes about the umpteenth hope to get out of the permanent crisis.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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