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The Cuban government proposes to introduce procedures for bankruptcy, liquidation, and restructuring for state-owned enterprises with sustained losses, as part of a comprehensive reform of the state business system that also includes the elimination of subsidies, greater management autonomy, the transformation of enterprises into commercial companies, and a gradual opening to the shareholding participation of private actors and individuals.
The measures are part of the package of 176 economic and social transformations presented by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz before the National Assembly of People's Power.
The possibility of liquidating loss-making state-owned companies appears within the Axis 1: Transformations in the management model of economic players, where the Executive proposes redesigning the operations of the socialist state enterprise to function under conditions similar to those of other economic actors.
Among the proposals is the creation of specific procedures for the bankruptcy, liquidation, and restructuring of assets with sustained losses in the state sector, a measure accompanied by the elimination of subsidies to loss-making companies and a review of the financial relationship between the state budget and the business system.
The reform aims to grant significantly greater autonomy to state-owned enterprises.
They will be able to carry out any lawful activity without abandoning their main corporate purpose, access the currency exchange market under the new conditions that will be established, approve wholesale and retail prices in a decentralized manner, and negotiate salaries based on their economic and financial capabilities.
Furthermore, the current wage scale in the state-owned enterprise system will be eliminated, and a minimum wage adjusted to inflation will be established.
The Government also proposes resizing the Higher Business Management Organizations (OSDE), removing their state functions or those inherent to companies, and empowering them to create state-owned enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (mipymes).
Both the OSDE and the companies will be able to carry out processes of creation, merger, dissolution, and liquidation of entities, as well as internal reorganizations and outsourcing of services.
Another transformation aims to relax the use of post-tax profits and minimize the indicators used to measure business efficiency.
At the same time, financial instruments will be created aimed at capitalizing companies without relying on the state budget, and financial investment from both state-owned and private enterprises will be encouraged.
The package also includes a National Program for the Valuation and Titling of State Business Assets, which aims to carry out a national inventory of tangible and intangible assets with market valuation, issue property certificates that can be used as guarantees for bank loans, and allow companies to monetize underutilized assets through long-term leases to other economic actors and foreign investors.
One of the most significant changes is the transformation of socialist state enterprises into joint stock companies or partnerships.
According to the proposal, the State will define the level of shareholding it will maintain in each sector, ensuring a majority position in those considered strategic.
In this new framework, state-owned enterprises will be able to acquire shares in other companies, and gradually, non-state management forms and individuals will also be able to do so.
Similarly, the Government proposes to allow the purchase of shares and properties of state-owned enterprises by both state and non-state legal entities, both national and foreign, as well as by individuals, provided that the legal origin of the funds is demonstrated.
The business reform also includes the creation of a more competitive and efficient business system, capable of generating income that contributes to the financing of social services, as well as the decentralization of powers to provincial and municipal governments to create, merge, extinguish, and liquidate local state-owned enterprises.
The measures were presented by Marrero Cruz as part of a strategy to restructure the Cuban economic model and correct accumulated distortions, in a context marked by the economic crisis, a shortage of foreign currency, and the need to increase the efficiency of the state productive apparatus.
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