HAVANA, (Reuters) – Austerity measures and the restructuring of Cuba’s Soviet-style economy have reduced spending on research and development (R&D) by close to 50 percent over the last five years, according to a government report released last week.
The National Statistics Office’s 2014 statistical abstract, currently being posted chapter by chapter on its web site ONE.CU, said spending on scientific and technological R&D fell from 651.5 million pesos in 2010 to 380.5 million last year, with the peso fixed as equivalent to the dollar.
Further, the number of university-level employees in the sector has fallen from a high of 81,000 in 2011 to 55,000 in 2014.
A Cuban economist, who asked to remain anonymous due to restrictions on talking with foreign journalists, attributed the brain drain to cuts in higher education and personnel seeking more lucrative employment inside the country and abroad as restrictions on working for the state and travel are loosened.
President Raul Castro’s government has imposed strict austerity measures since he replaced his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, aimed at meeting the country’s foreign debt obligations and reigning in budget deficits even as it allows more private economic activity and loosens restrictions on everyday life.
The Communist-run government has been consolidating university-level and company R&D activities in search of greater efficiencies, for example grouping dozens of pharmaceutical companies into one state enterprise and merging colleges in the provinces.
Cubans sought 266 patents in 2010 and just 150 in 2014, according to the report.
