Tourism projects in Ciego de Avila are going full steam ahead
Delivery of materials to rehabilitate the runway of the Jardines del Rey International Airport and the roads in the area is guaranteed
Por 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES – Despite “a difficult economic situation in the country” and a 45% deficit in the housing plan for 2024, work in the tourism sector in Ciego de Ávila is going full steam ahead. According to the newspaper Invasor, the province is working on developing the tourist destination Jardines del Rey, “the second sun and beach enclave in Cuba and one of the most prominent in the Caribbean region.”
Although the article does not indicate how long the works will take or the total investment, it indicates that the Provincial Construction Materials Company (Avilmat) is participating in the project on the keys located in the north of Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey, with the aim of increasing hotel and non-hotel tourist capacity, “with high-standard facilities.”
To do this, Avilmat, “an example of a socialist state entity,” sells and transports construction materials to Cayo Cruz. The company, according to the text, will produce more than 260,000 cubic meters of materials such as sand, granite and gravel, despite the “complex situation with energy carriers, interruptions in the electrical service and the allocation of only 49% of the fuel planned for the year.”
Invasor also highlights that to ensure that tourism development takes place, Avilmat will produce 660,000 blocks of different sizes, “a figure greater than 30,000 square meters of flooring, 4,500 tons of mortar and more than 18,000 tons of crushed gypsum, the latter being an essential raw material for making cement.”
However, just over a month ago, the same newspaper reported, when assessing the residential housing plan in the province for this year, that only 240 of the 670 planned houses would be built. Much of the problem, according to the official newspaper, was due to the lack of construction materials throughout the country. “The main obstacles facing the territory are related to the lack of cement and steel, the lack of financing for subsidized housing and the still scarce local production of construction materials.”
The newspaper was critical in its report, saying that 2024 will join a long history of deficiencies and failures in the construction sector. “Currently, the housing stock in Ciego de Ávila shows a deficit of around 35,000 homes. At this rate, it will take almost 40 years to meet all the demand; and that assumes that in the next four decades cyclones and construction deterioration do not demolish a single house,” it reported on November 26.
Regarding road works for tourism in Jardines del Rey, Alberto Suárez Cid, deputy director of Avilmat, also reported that they provided resources for the repair of the runway at the archipelago’s airport.
According to Invasor, this material also made possible “the improvement and construction of roads in the aforementioned tourist development area, ensuring appropriate conditions for the safe movement of visitors and workers who provide services in these places.”
This “prosperity” highlighted by the newspaper contrasts with the poor conditions of the province’s roads, which are used by the majority of the population and which have contributed to two road accidents in the last eight days, which have claimed the lives of five people, two of them minors .
The policy of prioritising tourism development at the expense of the housing plan is repeated in other provinces of the country, such as in Sancti Spíritus, where, of the 390 million pesos that the Ministry of Construction dedicated to the sector in 2023, almost 60% – 227 million – went to the Meliá Trinidad Península hotel project, owned by the State and managed by the Spanish company. This measure meant that, of 100 homes planned that year, barely 35 were built.
Translated by Translating Cuba.
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