Havana, Cuba.-The expenditure in Cuba in Scientific and Technological Activities (ACT), in the year 2016, reached 781.8 million pesos, reported today the official from the Cuban Ministry of Sciences, Technology and Environment (CITMA), Armando Rodriguez.

In a press conference, the director for science and technology from that ministry explained that 84 percent of that total volume was devoted to six State companies: CITMA, the ministries of Public Health, Agriculture, Transportation and Higher Education, as well as BioCubaFarma, a business group that produces medicines and advance technology equipment and services.

This group, composed of six institutions, was followed by another group with not minor, but less importance: the ministries of Energy, Industries and Food. All of them together, representing 92 percent of the expenditure in ACT in the country during last year, Rodriguez said.

The official highlighted that in compared to 2015, the expenditure and investments in the sector increased in 23 percent, meaning that this year, the percentage of that figure in relation to the GDP reached 0.91 percent.

In that reference, the expert from the CITMA Science and Technology Department, Jesus Chia highlighted that Cuba has favorable records in Latin America, only following large countries as Argentina, Mexico and Brazil, and recognized the progress by smaller countries as Costa Rica.

Rodriguez, who is also national coordinator of science and technology , said the structure of expenditure in ACT per type (current expenditure and capital expenditure) confirmed in 2016 the historic tendency, favorable to current expenditure (salaries and others), to the detriment of the capital or investment expenditure (construction, assembly and equipment), the latter represented only 12 percent of the total volume.

Armando Rodriguez reported that regarding the financial sources of the expenditure in ACT in 2016, the State budget, including the Finqancial Fund for Science, Technology and Innovation, continues to be the most important source (65 percent).

‘In terms of growth, compared to 2015, the business financing, with a 17-percent increase, almost tripled the State budget increase,’ the official said.