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| On January 1, 1959, the Cuban revolution army led by Comrade Fidel entered the capital, and a provisional government was established. This event opened a new era for the Cuban people, the era of mastering their own destiny. (Photo: VNA) |
Sixty four years ago, on January 1, 1959, Cuban history marked an important milestone when the dictatorship of Batista was overthrown; and a new regime of the working people was established, marking a great victory of the Cuban Revolution. After 64 years with many difficulties and challenges, the Caribbean islands nation has always remained steadfast and affirmed its vitality on the socialist road.
Since 1959, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and leader Fidel Castro, Cuban people have made many marks in the national defense and construction. All the tricks of hostile forces, from distorted information to diplomatic isolation, trade embargo or economic blockade, could not subdue the "uprising spirit and aspiration to reach freedom and happiness" of the Cuban people.
From a country with a backward and artisanal economy, Cuba has today “amazed the world” in many areas, especially in the fields of health and education. The World Health Organization (WHO) has rated Cuba as one of the world’s leading countries in the field of health and people’s health care. Meanwhile, Cuba has also built a solid education system, with all citizens being exempted from tuition fees until the end of university.
Over the past 60 years of development, facing changes in the international situation, especially in the last decades of the twentieth century, the Cuban economy has revealed many limitations and weaknesses, leading to production stagnation and difficult socio-economic life. In particular, after the collapse of the socialist model in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the world’s socialist system temporarily fell into decline, and the socialist countries in the world (China, Vietnam) researched and implemented the line of renovation, reform and opening-up suitable to the specific circumstances of each country and made important achievements. If China chooses reform and opening-up path and Vietnam chooses innovation model, Cuba proposes a policy of updating the socio-economic model with the goal of overcoming limitations, mistakes, and developing the economy, gradually stabilizing and improving people’s living standards.
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| Delegates attended the opening session of the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in Havana on April 16, 2021. (Photo: AFP/VNA) |
With the close direction of President Raul Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba, the implementation of the policy of updating the Cuban socio-economic model has been widely deployed and achieved many positive results. The Cuban economy has witnessed changes in the direction of eliminating subsidies, reducing payrolls, developing the self-employment economy, opening the domestic market, attaching importance to economic cooperation and foreign investment to improve labour efficiency, promoting production, developing rapidly and sustainably, while firmly protecting the achievements that the Cuban revolution has gained.
Meanwhile, although the economy is still facing many difficulties due to the US embargo, Cuba has always focused on developing education and health care and has built a highly developed health system and solid foundation education, free service to the people. From a country where 30% of the population could not read or write, today, the illiteracy rate in Cuba is only 0.2%. Education in Cuba is free and 100% of school-age children go to school. Universal immunization programs or other universal health care have almost eradicated diseases like polio, rubella, tuberculosis and chickenpox. Besides, Cuba's biotechnology industry is also very developed with the preparation of many drugs and specific vaccines (33 vaccines, 33 types of cancer drugs, 18 drugs for cardiovascular diseases and 7 drugs for other diseases). In particular, Cuba has successfully produced Abdala vaccine against COVID-19 with an efficiency of over 90%. Cuba has become a leading pharmaceutical supplier to Latin America and many Asian countries.
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| Cuba has always focuses on developing education and health care and many achievements have been recognized by the world in these fields. (Photo for illustration: Radio Havana Cuba) |
The successful steps of the process of updating the socio-economic model of the Communist Party of Cuba have been confirmed through the congresses. If the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (in April 2011) set the premise for the transition process, the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (April 2016) institutionalized this process, then the 8th Congress (April 2021) set the strong, comprehensive and synchronous transformation requirements of the mechanisms and policies, concretizing extensive transformation measures in order to liberate productive forces, and improve productivity and people's living standards. It can be found that Cuba's policy of "updating the socialist model" has made many important achievements, showing the correctness of the Cuban Communist Party, and creating the Cuban people’s confidence in the cause of economic reform and socialism construction.
Over the past 64 years since the successful Cuban Revolution until now, may be no other people in the world have been subjected to such persistent sieges and embargoes as the Cuban people. However the vivid reality in all fields shows that Cuba is constantly trying to rise up to affirm its position. Constancy and creativity may be the keys to create the vitality and resilience of Cuba - a people determined to follow the socialist path!./.