2024 Marked the Difference in Digital Transformation in Cuba

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2024 Marked the Difference in Digital Transformation in Cuba
Fecha de publicación: 
13 January 2025
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The computerization of society in Cuba is advancing, supported by the Policy for Digital Transformation, the Cuban Digital Agenda, and the Strategy for the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, approved by midyear.

Thus, despite the complex conditions, 2024 concluded with a favorable balance in this process, which aims to strengthen and lead to a better use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the country.

Cuba, which suffers from an unfair economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States government, which causes serious limitations of all kinds, does not stop on the path of digitalization and redoubles its efforts to guarantee equal access of its population to ICT and its benefits.

This is a higher stage where, based on what has been achieved, emphasis is placed on the introduction and development of these technologies, with the premise that people are the center of what´s done and accomplished, in accordance with the strategic sectors of the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030.

At the World Internet Conference, which took place in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China, last November, Cuban authorities stated that the Island aims to increase the creation of capacities in the field of new technologies, favoring the modernization of economy, the well-being of society, and the development of its own technological solutions adapted to the conditions of the nation.

With this vision, digital transformation can contribute to expanding the impacts of development, and from this perspective, work is being done for a society in which digital development empowers, includes, and provides innovative, ethical and sustainable solutions, with the defense of digital standards and openly managed data, in addition to the strengthening of local digital ecosystems.

New technological platforms and applications for health, culture, education, tourism, commerce and government management are some of the achievements created by national competences and creative professional talent to advance the computerization of Cuban society.

2024 concludes with an increase in mobile phone, internet and digital transformation services:

• 84% of the country's popular councils have mobile phone coverage, 50.4% 4G and 87.53% 3G.

• More than 174,430 homes have Internet through Nauta Hogar connection

• There are more than 1,600 Wi-Fi areas and a figure of more than 650 navigation rooms.

• There are more than six thousand radio bases deployed in the country.

• 7.9 million mobile lines are in service, of which 7.2 million have Internet access activated.

• More than 50 thousand dedicated links in organizations and companies, as part of the computerization of processes and digital transformation.

• There´s an increase in online procedures and in the use of electronic payments through the digital gateways Transfermóvil and EnZona, which have strengthened integration with electronic platforms, which market products and services of state and non-state economic actors and with banks.

• If from January to November 2022, internet traffic in Cuba was, on average, 113,045 Gigabits per second (GBPS) in reception and 16,914 GBPS in transmission, during the past month of July it increased to 239,019 GBPS in reception and 40,605 GBPS in transmission.

• Currently, digital network subscribers reach six million, in 2022 they were 4.2 million. In the case of networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp, they have six million subscribers, Telegram 5.9 million, Instagram and YouTube 5.8 million, and X 4.8 million.

• Cuba has 263 government digital websites; electronic payment of public taxes has increased and become widespread.

• The Cuban software industry has responded to the main challenges of technological development in this area with 31 state entities and 290 micro, small and medium-sized companies, of which 88 are private, to which the technological parks of Havana and Matanzas have also contributed, which are consolidating themselves as dynamic units of science, and innovation.

For the president of the Union of Cuban IT Professionals, Aylin Febles Estrada, the vision of the Digital Agenda in progress is that “Cuban socialist society be a digital, inclusive, participatory, rights-based society, with a population equipped with skills and skills that allow it to make critical, ethical, humanistic and productive use of data and technologies.

All of this “with high connectivity that´s affordable and accessible, with a digital economy and an interconnected, transparent and citizen-friendly State, and where the culture of innovation prevails in a safe environment that contributes to general well-being and to achieving a prosperous and sustainable socialism.”

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff

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