Kenneth Glad
The move comes during a period of shortages, sanctions and stalled growth. Officials are presenting the plan as a necessary attempt to restart production and loosen central controls.
Cuba’s National Assembly has approved a major economic reform package, after the measures won backing from the ruling Communist Party, DR reports.
AP describes the plan as an emergency package containing unusual free-market measures for the island.
The changes could become one of Cuba’s most significant economic shifts since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. For decades, the state has controlled much of what is produced, who produces it and how resources are distributed.
Local power would grow
According to AP, the reforms are expected to decentralize parts of the state-run economy.
Municipal authorities could receive more power to approve businesses and manage ties with state firms, cooperatives and private companies.
Local governments may also be allowed to import and export goods and oversee foreign-currency income.
For ordinary Cubans, the hope is that fewer administrative bottlenecks could eventually mean better access to goods and services.
State-owned companies would also gain more freedom. AP writes that they could set pay systems, use profits with fewer limits, trade directly and form partnerships with private firms.
Private business gets a wider role
DR adds that the measures include private property development, private banks and the conversion of some state-owned businesses into companies with shares and ownership stakes.
Businesses may also be allowed to import and export directly instead of working through state intermediaries, according to AP. That could matter for producers who struggle to obtain raw materials.
Subsidies are also set to change as Cuba plans to gradually phase out parts of its long-running rationing model and move more goods toward market pricing.
Sanctions add urgency
The reforms arrive after intensified U.S. sanctions and fuel restrictions. Washington has imposed a fuel embargo, while sanctions linked to Gaesa, Cuba’s military-connected business group, have affected foreign hotel operators.
Al Jazeera reports that President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Cuba’s crisis could not be blamed only on outside pressure. He pointed to “slowness, bureaucracy and norms that impede those who want to produce” and “decisions that we have put off”.
“The situation calls for urgent and necessary changes,” Diaz-Canel said. He also warned that some measures “will not have absolute consensus, but cannot be postponed”.
No clear timetable has been announced, and carrying out the reforms may prove difficult. Still, the package signals that Havana is prepared to test deeper economic changes while keeping Communist Party rule intact.
Sources: AP, DR, Al Jazeera
