CUBA STANDARD — In a long-awaited move, the Council of Ministers gave the go-ahead to create a new legal framework for companies, official media reported. That includes hundreds of thousands of small private businesses, which have languished under the status of “self-employed” for three decades, with many owners eagerly expecting to incorporate their business.
The reports said that elaboration of specific laws is beginning now, but they did not say when they are expected to be published.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero reiterated that the new framework will “not lead to a privatization process”, that “there are lines that cannot be crossed”, and that state companies still are “the main subject” of the Cuban economy.
Rather than talking about the economic potential of a thriving private sector, Marrero emphasized a revival of state enterprises.
In his only direct reference to private businesses, Marrero said that conditions for small and medium-size companies — no matter whether state or private — will be “similar”. The newly incorporated private businesses will be restricted to the same activities as the current category of “self-employed”, and they will “initially” be excluded from certain professional activities the self-employed are allowed to practice, such as computer programming, accounting, translating, veterinary medicine, designers, and “certain types of consulting”.
Raising the nearly 500 non-agricultural cooperatives out of their experimental limbo after nine years and ending a freeze on new co-ops, the government will now “gradually” grant new licenses, Marrero announced. Construction co-ops will be excluded, he said, without explaining why. The approach to non-agricultural cooperatives has shown to be “viable”, “despite the deficiencies”, Marrero said.
