CubaPLUS Magazine

Cuba Establishes Presence in Software Industry

By: Alfredo Boada Mola
Cuba Establishes Presence in Software Industry

Every year hundreds of Cuban students graduate from the university level computer engineering course.

In spite of a scarcity of resources and the internet restrictions imposed by the enforcement of the over 50-year old US blockade, Cuba is making noteworthy efforts to ensure a greater degree of social and economic computerization and automation, including within the national health system.

For more than a decade now, the University of Computer Sciences (UCS) has been producing a broad range of applications and computation services for many different economic and service sectors within the country. Luis Rodríguez, the institutionrsquo;s business director, told Cubaplus that their commercial portfolio is focused on five high-impact sectors: industry, education, health, telecommunications, and public administration.

Their range of products includes the Genesig platform, a management system for the Attorney General, and the Nova operating system that facilitates the transfer of Cuban entitiesrsquo; telecoms services to free and independent software systems.

UCS is similarly engaged in computerizing and automating various other Cuban entities including the public health service and the judicial system, as well as the development of search engines.

The university is currently seeking to place its leading product lines on the international market and to create strategic alliances that will strengthen it as a productive training center and a computer product and service exporter.

Daniel Aisemberg, director of the Evaluando Software company, said that Cuba is one of Latin Americarsquo;s most important training centers. Thousands of computer engineers graduate from UCS as well as Havanarsquo;s Jose Antonio Echeverria Higher Polytechnic Institute, something that according to the Argentinean businessman needs to be shown to the world.

Ernesto Kruger is the Ecuadorian executive president and founder of the innovation projects enterprise Kruger that has undertaken renowned projects in the US, Hong Kong, and Central America for over 20 years. He spoke along similar lines, noting that Cuba has a wealth of human resource talent in the information technology field." In fact, Cuban software products are employed with notable degrees of success in various countries and sections of the Bolivian business community have expressed interest in increased collaboration with the Cuban software industry.

Systems engineer Marcelo Antezana, who represents the Netics de Bolivia firm, said that integrated projects for implementing information solutions based on Cuban software had been underway in Bolivia since 2010. We have demonstrated the technical, economic, and legal feasibility of selling Cuban software in an integrated way in Bolivia," he added.

Among other things, the engineer referred to the development of a Cuban software based border control system, passport office technology and a multi- biometric police investigation support platform as examples of such collaboration. The need for integration within the Latin American software industry and Cubarsquo;s participation in the market were addressed at the recent international forum for business and computer technology leaders in Havana.

The forum, held at the headquarters of the Jose Antonio Echeverria Higher Polytechnic Institutersquo;s Integrated Technology Research Center, brought together fifty representatives from 12 countries.

Participants from Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Canada, Bolivia, Colombia, and Spain discussed, among other topics of interest to Cuban and Latin American Software companies, the application of information technology in business, electronic governance, and the future of this technology.

The event aimed to insert the Cuban computer industry into the Latin American market, to establish networks and bilateral accords, and to exchange information on trends, know-how, and advances in the sector.

A range of Cuban, Argentinean, and Ecuadorian software products won LaTinatec 2015 prizes, awarded in different categories for excellent results attained in the regionrsquo;s software Industry.

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