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The Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz presented this Thursday before the National Assembly of People's Power a package of 176 measures for economic and social transformations that eliminates historical restrictions on the Cuban private sector, in an extraordinary session held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana.
The Third Extraordinary Session of the X Legislature featured the participation via videoconference of Army General Raúl Castro and the physical presence of President Miguel Díaz-Canel, as reported by the official Canal Caribe.
Among the most significant proposals for the non-state sector is the removal of the limit of 100 workers that has previously restricted the private sector, which would allow companies to grow without limitations on staffing.
It is also proposed to eliminate the restriction of one company per person, allowing the same individual to own multiple micro, small and medium enterprises or non-agricultural cooperatives simultaneously.
The regime also proposes to grant real rights— usufruct or right of superficies— to non-state actors, a measure that would expand access to real estate for the private sector.
Another relevant development is the authorization for the private sector to import and sell fuels, including at the retail level, in a country facing a severe fuel shortage with blackouts lasting for hours across the territory.
Non-state forms will also be able to carry out as many activities as they wish, as long as they are legal and do not abandon their main activity, while both bureaucratic requirements for creating or converting businesses and the list of prohibited activities are reduced.
The regime committed to authorize all pending mipymes and non-agricultural cooperatives before the end of June, a process that had been stalled for months with the number of companies hovering around 11,300.
At the same time, the package broadens a parity logic to the state sector: as proposed, state-owned companies will be able to carry out any activities they determine, distribute their profits after taxes as they see fit, and set the salaries of their workers.
The guiding principle was formulated as follows in the session: "From now on, every measure approved for the private sector will also apply to state-owned enterprises."
The approval process for these reforms was expedited: Díaz-Canel announced the agenda on June 12, the Extraordinary Plenary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba endorsed it on Wednesday with the support of Raúl Castro via videoconference, and the Assembly was summoned this Thursday through Agreement 599-X of the Council of State to formalize it.
The 176 measures are organized into five areas: macroeconomic stabilization, transformation of the economic model, agricultural recovery, cost management, and mitigation of social costs, all within the context of a deep crisis characterized by scarcity, inflation, and a decline in gross domestic product.
Micro, small, and medium enterprises (mipymes) were legalized in Cuba in September 2021 through Decree-Law 46, after more than five decades of absence of the formal private sector, but have since operated under restrictions that the new proposals now seek to dismantle.
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