First prize ($ 1000 USD): “Individual development as a component of collective well-being” by Alejandro Puerto.
Second prize ($ 500 USD): “New type of trade in Cuba” by Reinaldo Villafaña Villavicencio.
Third prize ($ 300 USD): “A better Cuba is possible” by Pedro Cabezas Crespo.
Mention ($ 100 USD): “The obstacles to the creativity of the Cuban” by Alex Joy Pérez.
Mention ($ 100 USD): “Rule of Law” by Deily Castro García.
The winner of the first prize of $ 1000 of the Ideas for Cuba contest was “Individual development as a component of collective well-being” by Alejandro Puerto (Cienfuegos).
The winning paper, proposes to strengthen legal structures and to enhance the right of property, privatize state-owned enterprises to make the functioning of public services more transparent, also to open the Cuban economy to the international scene through commercial, investment and financial relations.
Reinaldo Villafaña Villavicencio, from the province of Camagüey, with the paper “New type of trade in Cuba” received the second prize of $ 500 dollars. Villafaña coincides with the winner in the right to private property and proposes another set of ideas such as investment in the island from Cubans living abroad.
The third prize of $ 300 dollars goes to Havana City with “A Better Cuba is possible” Pedro Cabezas Crespo, who proposes the creation of cooperative banks for microcredit, to facilitate the acquisition of machine tools and the abolition of the commercial monopoly exercised by the state. “The lifting of this blockade, that of the Cuban government against its people, is a sine qua non for development.”
The Ideas for Cuba contest was launched last August by four Cuban-American entrepreneurs to begin building Cuba’s future from the present with the search for solutions to national challenges.
The contest had to answer the question: “How could you release the talent, creativity, innovation and initiative to generate wealth and prosperity for everyone in Cuba?” The prize also includes publication in a collection book with the best ideas for Cuba, taken from all submissions.
The first edition of this contest had 77 participants. Except Ciego de Ávila and Las Tunas, all the provinces of Cuba sent papers, being Villa Clara the one of greater participation with 13 works presented. Followed Havana City with 7 proposals.
Given the large number of entries received, the competition committee decided to award two special mentions receiving one hundred dollars each, the first went to a 16 year old student, Alex Joy Pérez with the work “The obstacles for the creativity of the Cuban” and the villaclareña Deily Castro García with “Rule of Law”.
Massive access to cheap internet, ending the state monopoly of trade, as well as eliminating customs and tariff barriers that hinder the importation of technology and inputs, modifying the legal system, allowing investment in all sectors of the economy both in large and medium sized enterprises were recurrent ideas in many of the works presented.
Other contest finalists were José Carlos Gallego Ricardo (Holguin), “Ideas for Cuba” by Víctor Manuel Dueñas Otero and Jansel Moreno Perea (Villaclara), “I believe in the development” of Carlos Alejandro Perdomo Mendoza (Villaclara), “How to improve the life system” by Yendri Goyes Horta (Matanzas) and “Creativity vs Pedagogy” by José Gabriel Rodríguez Disotuar (Guantanamo).
The prizes will be delivered on December 17th in Cuba. The next edition of the Ideas for Cuba will be launched in January 2017. The Contest Management Committee is grateful for the support provided by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba in disseminating the information.
December 12, 2016
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE OF THE “IDEAS FOR CUBA” CONTEST
(Www.ideasparacuba.com)
Jorge Sanguinetty
Salvi Pascual
Marlene Moleon
Armando Rodríguez