Published 22.37
Cuba is taking new steps to liberalize its economy, under pressure from the tightening US blockade.
The communist-ruled island will open more sectors to small businesses and speed up the approval process for new private initiatives, President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced in a televised address.
Private companies with a maximum of 100 employees were allowed in 2021 and have become an increasingly important part of Cuba’s economy. Since February this year, they have been allowed to import fuel, a sector that was previously completely state-controlled.
As part of the new reforms, private companies will also be allowed to invest on similar terms as foreign companies, since several of these have left the country following tightened American sanctions.
Díaz-Canel also promises decentralization of the economy through greater freedom of action for state-owned companies, as well as a trimmed state apparatus.
