Fostering Self-Employment Will Posetively Impact Cuban Economy

The opening to more than 2,000 activities of the 127 allowed to date in the exercise of self-employment (TCP), will positively impact the Cuban economy, according to Ileana Diaz Fernandez, a researcher at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy at the University of Havana.

In order to achieve a greater impact on the growth of the nation’s finances, said Diaz Fernandez, the new measures approved by the Council of Ministers could encourage all economic actors to be more efficient, to link up, to generate alliances, and only in this way will the complementarity of all strategic sectors of the country be achieved.

She also explained that the self-employed will have the option of organizing their business with different activities.

She expressed that the proper functioning will depend to a great extent on the correct implementation of the single window, an important tool where the interested parties will be able to carry out all their legal procedures,
which will facilitate and speed up the permits.

Díaz Fernández warned that one of the main difficulties that have not yet been clarified has to do with the wholesale market, where self-employed workers obtain the inputs for their work.

Likewise, there are still restrictions regarding the practice of professionals such as engineers or architects, despite the fact that some of them could organize certain businesses related to their activity, she said.

Along with the policies approved on February 6, she said, the socialist state enterprise, as the central axis of the Cuban economy, should enjoy greater autonomy to be more competitive, enterprising and innovative, which will encourage workers to feel more comfortable in the state sector.

The economic and health crisis caused by COVID-19, together with the tightening of the U.S. commercial and financial blockade, had a great impact on the Cuban economy, which led more than 250,000 employees in the sector to request the temporary suspension of their licenses.

There are currently more than 600,000 self-employed workers in Cuba, which represents 13 percent of the country’s labor occupation.