Ernesto Vallín Martínez, General Director of IT at the Ministry of Communications, President of the III International Symposium "The Software Industry", offers details about this event in the magazine Tiempo Real.

- III International Symposium, The Software Industry. What does this space consist of?

"Although we talk about all the elements that are worked on and researched at the convention, the software industry is where all these issues arise. Cuba can proudly boast that 100% of the applications used for e-commerce and e-government are developed by Cuban programmers together with two payment gateways also developed by Cuban developers. There is also a group of issues in education that we have been solving and they were very useful during COVID in the lockdown stage."

- What are the main axes of this event in its third edition?

"We have several elements that are going to be discussed, among the main ones are the challenges faced by this software industry, how to face the different scenarios in which the industry works today, the impact of these new technologies that are being used today and how to make these technologies a much more profitable industry."

"We are going to address the issues of good practices, that is, everything that has to do with software quality, which is an area in which the strength of our industry is very defined. The possibility that we can have to penetrate the market and thus continue the development that this industry has had in the last 30 years in Cuba. We will also discuss the elements associated with business models, how to make marketing strategies that are more practical and that allow, in the complex context of the national and global industry, to penetrate markets in such a way that we can gain a space there and be able to take it forward." 

"For all these works we have the possibility of having a prestigious scientific committee headed by Arturo Rellana, the Director of Science of the University of Computer Science, very high-level specialists from other universities and companies in the country, who have a very deep know-how on these issues, his vice president of the event, comrade Rafael Torralba president of the Havana scientific and technological park, and experts from different subjects, who give a very relevant value to the scientific committee of the event."

- Which institutions and research centers are joining this space? 

"The entire national software industry is involved here, constituted by a group of state-owned companies that are consolidated in the national market, as well as new economic actors, there is a group of MSMEs with very good results, with very interesting work, not only from a practical point of view but also from a research point of view, which is interesting and we want to discuss a lot about it at the III Symposium." 

"The University of Computer Science with several research and development centers on specific topics of the software industry. In the same way, the DATYS company has the CENATAF center, which is an advanced research center with a lot of prestige in the country. And we have CITMATEL, which is the only software company in the country that has the high-tech category of Cuban companies in this field. All this gives us the opportunity to discuss a variety of topics and lines of research that can be very useful and enriching for the event and for the industry."

 - How has this initiative of the software industry, that is, the international symposium, evolved from its first edition to the next one that will be in 2026?

"Every edition presents a challenge. They always take elements that constitute a change in the digital transformation of the country and in the strengthening of this industry that really requires today more than ever a cohesion and a very exclusive way of doing. We have to follow that route and face that aspiration with all the desire so that in this edition we also leave the bar very high and continue advancing in this direction."

 - So what results do the software industry expect from the third international symposium?

"Above all, to be able to treasure, to share all the knowledge that can be brought to us from different perspectives. We hope that industry participants in the region can be with us by any means and also be able to share with the presentations and the experiences of those colleagues who also work in this very competitive industry within the region."

- What message would you like to send taking advantage of the opportunity to join us especially to software developers and students of technologies who perhaps have some interesting research and can socialize it at this event and still encourage us to participate?

"Do not be afraid, these events, unlike others, we have open doors to students, to people who may have some idea, who may have some solution, who have solved a difficulty, either at the local level. That is the greatness of our country, the possibility of having a well-educated population that allows, regardless of age, or the specialty you have studied. We have had the experience of many very experienced people in computer science and they are doctors, they are agronomists, they are communicators.

¡We will be waiting for you at Informática 2026!

Thanks a lot!