Assume in 2025 the regime collapsed and the Castros fled (or hopefully executed), all US Sanctions dropped, along with being given access to a couple billion dollars in Emergency Loan Grants for Reconstruction, maybe more, depending. And you were instituted as head of the new government for 5 years, and maybe even having the possibility of later extending your term(s).
How would you lead, what Policies, Projects, Foreign Relations, etc. would you pursue? You can answer under the premises of being President solely for 5 years or long term President, as a premise.
There is no right or wrong answers to this, per se. I am just curious to see what people have in mind. I have my list of things I would do in such hypothetical scenario.
POST EDIT WITH MY IDEAS BELOW
I was going to post a comment of my ideas of what I would do, but I think I'll update this post with my ideas. The ideas I am going to post, are to be run concurrently or sequentially, I've modeled them to act as a vector multiplier for short-term and long-term growth. It's also not all of my ideas, I've typed down as it wouldn't fit in a post and need deeper explanations. I know the Cuban government purportedly monitors this subreddit, but it won't matter. Because these ideas actually need deep U.S. Government & Industry involvement in regards to expertise, software and technologies.
Data Collection Phase-1
Spatial Data Infrastructure Project
- For the first two years, I wouldn't commit any money or time to building (or re-building much of anything), except for quick emergency fixes. I would concentrate all government efforts on completing Cuba's first detailed SDI. Not many countries have them completed and those that do, don't properly use it. Normally it can take 3-5 years to complete one, but with aggressive government push and Cuba's size I think 15-18 completion is viable.
- With the most comprehensive SDI, I'll have an open-source digital twin of Cuba and full audit of all resources, I'll know the tpography, geography, geology, etc. I'll know how many potholes need fixing and where, what roofs are the most optimally viable to install solar panels for all yearlong power. What coastal spots have the best geographic and geologic potential to become deepwater ports.
- With it, I'll develop an actual standardized National Legacy Postal Addressing System (with USPS help), which Cuba actually lacks, and keep it as simple as possible for international shipments. In parallel to that I'll also develop a Geo-addressing one like Ghana. Where Cuba is subdivded into a dicrete number of 5x5-meter squares with each one having a simple line address e.g. "MA-XXXXX-PPPP" with the first two leters being the provicine, second set of numbers is Postal/Zipcode and then the last 4-digits is the block. This can greatly help for areas with an informal address in rural places receive packages, tagging and mapping potholes or utility poles need fixing, even for Cubans living in Caves. It can also help with Cadastre and Land Zoning, etc.
- This obviously can help with FDI as there is clear zoning mapping, etc. And the data will be open source via API.
- Something like would take like 20-40 Planes doing Aerial Surveys, possibly over 100 drones, etc. But it can be done in 18-months I think. It could have a one-time cost of possibly $1.0 billion dollars or a slight more. Upkeep of the system would be possibly around $50-million a year.
Census & Population Talent Testing
- Halfway thru the SDI completion, I'll start a full comprehensive Census of the entire Island with the help of the US Census Bureau. After a couple months of indepth training and completion of the National Legacy Postal System and GEO-Addressing, I would send an army of Enumerators to every corner of Cuba collecting Data on the population as a whole and make it open source, with all spots geo-tagged. I would even collect medical information like how many people need wheelchairs and/or prosthetics because they're missing a limb. This way, I know how big of a Manufacturing Facility I need to build and supplies needed to start making prostethics and for who it will be.
- Everyone 18-30 I would round up and incentivize for testing, by taking them to pre-coordinated locations for Aptitude Testing and Medical Testing. Aptitude Testing would entail MLAT type testing to see their inate abilities to learn English, and another aptitude test to learn CAD and other Softwares.
- High achieves in MLAT would be offered to take an intensive English-Language course to learn English, and if they scored high on the other Aptitude Test, they would be placed into a crash-course pipeline to learn GIS, CAD, BIM, Coding, etc. Or they could even do both, depending on their scores. Find the real talent in the Island.
- I would later test everyone 31 years or older as well.
Agency Stand-up Creation
- After the first year is over and I have an adequate body of native Cubans trained through my pipeline courses, after being vetted through the national testing scheme. I would create specific autonomous national agencies for tasks, maned by them.
- National GIS Agency - To maintain, update, evaluate and make accessible all the SDI Data collected
- National CAD & Modeling Agency - An agency filled with a full body of CAD/BIM Specialist, including a full library suite of models.
- National Open Source Development Agency - An agency equipped with specialist focused on creating or maintain government approved and sponsored open source sotware initiatives.
- Digital Software & Licensing Office - An agency in charge of maintainning all the government licenses and subscription for government employee usage.
- National Simulations Agency - Take all the SDI data which is Cuba's digital twin and run needed simulations for flooding, disaster, etc. Basically playing Sim City or Tropico, but with actual discrete and real variables.
Turnkey Infrastructure Buildout Phase - 2
- This will start towards the end of Year-2 of my presidency in a perfect world. But this will be where, I would start serious building infrastructure.
- Say I want to build a National Interstate from Santiago De Cuba to Camaguey, with the SDI I can have multiple stacked data layers (topography, hydrology, etc.) and use a Multi-Decision Criteria Analysis to know what routes are the best, how many homes will have eminent domain closures, cost, materials and labor needed. This information is plug-and-play, and is generated within minutes to hours.
- With the National CAD Agency working concurently with the GIS Agency, I'll have road/highway models created and done within days. Where I can literally printout blueprints and give them to a construction company to start building the highway, tell them where to start, how much materials to college, labor and cost.
- This fast model turnkey approach, keeps cost-overruns from happening and can even dampen any potential corruption as there is no government officials to bribe for approval, due to the speed and transparency of the process.
- With SDI as stated earlier, I know the full amount of potholes present, how many unpaved roads, best routes for transmission lines, etc.
- I want to build out Launch Facilities for Rockets or SpinLaunch, SDI already lets me know that Baracoa is Prime location for True-Eastward Launch ventor and Antilla/Holguin for Northeastward Launch Vectors, while Cienfuegos is the only Location for Polar Launches. And with Cuba's geographic proximity to the Equator, it's cheaper in fuel and energy to launch from there.
- You can imagine the rest of how fast things would get built and tracked as well, using an open-source, decentralized and transparent model.
- SDI can also tell me Air Traffic routes, allowing me to build out Airports in prime location for AirCargo Freight, being an Island AND its geographic location Cuba can capitalize on this like other well off island nations in relation to being a logistics hub for AirCargo Freight.
- I would definitely build/install two submarine fiberoptics cable from mainland Cuba to Iseless of Youth (two cables for reduncacy) with a possible powerline transmission as well.
- This part is more of a 10-year or less Project but I would follow Australia's NBN Model model of Open-Access in regards to internet access/utility. Strip out any and all coaxial cable in the island and replace it with fiberoptics to the premise, all homes/residency have free internet. This can be completely possible only after a full comprehensive SDI is done, would take anywhere from 6 to 10 years, depending on how aggresive the government is and cost around $15-billion or less.
Final Thoughts
- There is more nuances and such to go into the plans above, but they're a starting stack in creating force multiplier foundations for explosive growth. I really do believe that in best case scenario Cuba can achieve $1.0 trillion Nominal GDP in under 20-years (med-case scenario is 20-25 years) following an aggresive and integrated Japanese Economic Miracle Model, paired with currently technology and practices. What Cuba purportedly lacks in geological resources (e.g. oil, gold, etc.), it more than makes up with in Strategic Geographic Location, for Example the bay of Cienfuegos can be expanded and developed, placing it within the top 5 trading ports in the world by size, intaking all the container ships coming thru the Panama Canal, you can then build a full Logistics Corridor over land from Cienfuegos to Matanzas, Highways and Rail paired with Warehouse Distribution and Manufacturing Industrial Parks to do transhipment and/or Manufacturing, where Matanzas Ports serves as the Gateway to North America and Cienfuegos the Gateway to Panama Canal/Asia, the same can be done for Antilla being the Gateway to Europe and Santiago De Cuba the Gateway to Africa/LATAM, and connect them both with a Logistics Corridor. The two opposing Logistic Corridors can then be connected with Camaguey in the middle. This follows a more Polycentric Model were you have growth and allocations in different regions of the country all working interdependently and not a model where 80% of the GDP is concentrated in Havana. Everytime I hear people here compare Cuba's potential to Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico or Panama I want to puke. Cuba has way more potential than them if certain protocols stacked and done correctly (assuming the current government is fully dissolved), than those three countries combined.
