Alejandro Gil

Havana, February 20 (RHC) -- None of the changes Cuba is making today are isolated. They are part of updating its economic functioning to resist and advance amid the blockade and the pandemic, Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil said Friday.

Among the renovations implemented by the island to update its model are the recent transformations approved for the private sector, which are part of a set of reforms in the business sector, budget, and the non-state forms of management.

In this regard, Gil explained that it is a redesign of the country's entire economic functioning to confront, resist and move forward amid the pandemic and the U.S. blockade.

He indicated that the purpose is to improve and expand to more than 2,000 activities that can be carried out through private work, which does not replace the proposed creation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the improvement of cooperatives' activity.

Gil explained that self-employment is necessary because it complements the economy, generates quality jobs, offers the possibility of productive linkages with the non-state sector, and makes it possible to reduce imports and take full advantage of the country's potential and reserves.

Speaking in the program Mesa Redonda this Friday, the Minister of Economy and Planning pointed out that contrary to some negative opinions, this is a radical transformation, not under the concept of rationalizing the state sector's workforce to be assimilated by the private sector.

He also rejected the proposal to authorize the import through natural persons for sale in the country of goods on a commercial basis, even though the wholesale market's supply is limited.

On this subject, he assured that  'it would be a mistake, a contradiction concerning the strategy the country is implementing, and it would not help to protect the economy and the population. Measures that stimulate the outflow of foreign currency from the country cannot be implemented, he stressed.