Interview with Ernesto Vallin Martínez, General Director of IT at the Ministry of Communications, President of the 3rd International Symposium "The software industry": Trends and good practices" and of the ICT Panorama in Cuba Contest of the XX International Convention and Fair #Informática2026, in the Morning Show "Buenos Días."

- What do you consider to be the main current challenges for the development of the Cuban software industry specifically? 

"Cuba, as we all know, the context we are living in forces us to have a strong presence in the sector of the software industry associated with national developments that guarantee digital transformation. And, if it is logical too, to have a component in the internationalization of the products of this industry. That is where the main challenges can be found, as well as sustaining, maintaining all the human resources trained by the revolution for this especialization area.”

- The International Convention and Fair Informática 2026 organizes key events for this sector. So what impact do you hope this third international symposium and the Panorama of ICT Contest will have on the national and international projection of Cuban ICT? 

"Well, every event that will be part of the fair is of great importance, but it is associated with the software industry itself, we give it the main relevance because in the end everything is done in the software industry, that is, men and women who through their creative expression in code can develop. But the industry, well, contains a group of issues in which it is necessary to give it a scientific sense and it is there at the fair, at the convention where this is expressed.”

- What topics will be addressed by the participants, countries and confirmed delegates that are already invited? 

“The event consists of Eight Thematic Guidelines that are fundamentally associated with, well, what I was saying, the challenges of how to develop this industry. It also has topics associated with the quality of the software. An industry requires quality not only for security elements and stability and scalability of solutions, but also to be able to internationalize these services.”
"Also, new methodologies for software development are addressed, a little bit about the trend and good practices in the region and how it is logical to export software in the general sense, that is, business models for software export more in the context that our nation lives.”

- How to participate? Those people who want to do it? What are the important registration dates? 

“Like the other events, we are already open for registration. November is a key month in this regard. November and December are the months where we move the most, and we will be calling and making the calls closer, but the most important dates are before November 30, 2025. The call was opened in April, and they could already start.”
“In the same way, the ICT Panorama Contest, which has a more trade fair expression, but addresses the issue of industry development, the same, that is indeed a little earlier, the dates are up to the September 30, 2025, who must submit all entries for this contest. This contest brings together a group of national solutions developed in Cuba for the computerization of society, for sectoral computerization, but with an impact on society.”

- Before the realization of this third international symposium, the software industry, trends and good practices, what pre-event actions have been planned?

“In this sense, we have planned a couple of actions that are currently still in the elaboration stage, because a group of events have coincided in date, but closer to the date of this one we will also be convening these events.””

- One of the mentioned guidelines is digital transformation. What specific strategies or policies is MINCOM implementing to make some progress towards a true digital transformation in the Cuban economy and society as a whole? And how is this ecosystem currently articulated in our country and the expectations that you have to strengthen it? 

“The software industry is the fundamental element in the development of solutions for digital transformation. In fact, 100% of the solutions that the country has implemented today were developed nationally and it is a strength that we have and it will be addressed in that way at the event. We intend to be able to incorporate a group of institutions that collaborate in the digital transformation there.”
“As we have said, digital transformation is not an exclusive fact only of the software industry or the Ministry of Communications, but different organizations and institutions that participate in the development of these solutions and the digital transformation of processes are interrelated depending on the well-being of the population.”

- What opportunities exist then for young Cuban professionals and entrepreneurs in the software sector and also ICT? 

"Well, I think that it is one of the most favored sectors or that can have the most impact, because it takes very little investment, it is only talent, it is the software industry and that is why it is one of the sectors where since its inception we have already integrated the form of state and non-state management to all this effort and in fact at the fair and at the convention the whole sector participated together several years ago giving supreme importance to these entrepreneurs who with a lot of creativity generate solutions. I think this space should be used by everyone. Everyone has opportunities.”

"In other words, the ICT panorama competition is not limited to national entities, but also to entities that are non-state. In fact, several private individuals have participated with us in previous events and we are calling for them to also be with us in this edition.

Thanks a lot!