 |
| Many restaurants and food stalls are already privately operated |
Cuba says
it is expanding free-market reforms, opening more of the retail services sector
to private business.
From 1
January workers including carpenters, locksmiths, photographers and repairmen
will be allowed to become self-employed.
They will
be able to set their own prices, while paying taxes and leasing their premises
from the state.
The
measures are the latest reforms aimed at reviving Cuba's socialist economy by
boosting private enterprise.
President Raul
Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel in 2008, has said the changes
represent an effort to update rather than abandon the socialist model.
His
government plans to have up to 40% of the the workforce employed by the
non-state sector by 2016, compared with just 10% at the end of 2010.
Dramatic
change
Restrictions
on private business have been relaxed, large numbers of state workers have been
laid off, and tens of thousands of Cubans have applied for licenses to work for
themselves.
For the
first time in decades people are allowed to buy and sell homes and cars and
take out private business loans from banks.
Earlier
this year state barbers shops and beauty salons were handed over to their
employees, who now work for themselves while paying rent, tax and social
security to the state.
That
initiative is now being extended to a wide range of small retail services,
including shoe, watch and electronic repairs, the official Communist Party
newspaper Granma said.
The change
will be rolled out gradually over the course of the year, starting in six
provinces including the capital, Havana.
President
Castro's programme of reform represents a dramatic change in Cuba, which for
nearly half a century was been run as a command economy, with almost all
activity controlled by the state.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.