Havana April 17 (RHC)-- In his opening remarks at the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, President Raúl Castro touched on nearly all issues pertaining to life in Cuba, including a section of the report on international politics.

Regarding the ongoing process to update the Cuban economic model, the Cuban head of state said that as a result of the economic transformations begun five years ago, private small and medium-sized businesses have proliferated in the country, though he warned that it does not mean a return to capitalism.

The Cuban president reaffirmed that the state enterprise will continue to be the backbone of Cuba's socialist economic model.

“We are not naive. We could not ignore the influence being exerted by powerful foreign forces towards empowering non-state economic management models and generate so-called agents of change to destroy the Revolution and socialism in Cuba.”

The Cuban president recalled that in the economic guidelines approved by the previous congress of the Cuban communists in 2011, it is clearly stated that there will be no concentration of property or wealth in private hands, and he added that the private economic activity serves as a complementary element to support state economic management.

In assessing the speed of the implementation of the ongoing transformations, the Cuban head of state insisted that here in Cuba there will be no so-called 'shock therapies' that are so common in other parts of the world to the detriment of the vulnerable sectors of society. He stressed that as the changes get implemented, no Cuban citizen will be abandoned to his/her fate, since protecting and caring for the vulnerable has been a basic principle of our socialist revolution from the very beginning. He said also that the international economic crisis and the persistent U.S. blockade policy against our country have also influenced the pace of implementation of the changes.

“The neo-liberal formulas that promote the speedy privatization of key economic and social sectors like health, education and social security will never be applied in socialist Cuba,” he said.

President Raúl Castro insisted on the importance of the people's active participation in the implementation of the agreed upon changes and defended Cuba's single party democracy and unity among our people.