Cuban President calls for urgent transformations of the country's economic and social model

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By Leticia Martínez Hernández, excerpted and translated from the Spanish

“We must focus, immediately, on implementing the urgent, most necessary transformations that must be made to the economic and social model," said First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, when speaking at a meeting of the Council of Ministers (Monday, March 2).

The president said that these transformations "are fundamentally related to business autonomy; municipal autonomy; the resizing of the state apparatus, government and institutions; national food production, with municipal assessments; encompassing not only renewable sources but also all aspects related to national crude oil; exports, linking them to the approved flexibilities for foreign direct investment; leveraging economic partnerships between the state and private sectors, particularly at the municipal level; and promoting business with Cubans residing abroad."

According to the Head of State, all these efforts must aid in stabilizing the country's macroeconomy, boosting foreign exchange earnings, and enhancing national production, particularly focusing on food.

During the meeting of the island's highest governmental body, which Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz conducts monthly from the Palace of the Revolution and via videoconference with all provinces, the president emphasized that "achieving this depends a lot on the performance of the business system, and also on the behavior of the municipalities."

He stated that companies must be ready to utilize all the powers they have been granted. Regarding business autonomy, many powers have been approved but remain unused, and some are even unfamiliar, he mentioned.

Díaz-Canel added that "the municipalities have to prepare, because more and more these processes that we are opening will be carried out there."

"Municipalities have to manage foreign direct investment; municipalities have to manage their own closed schemes in foreign currency; municipalities have to manage economic partnerships between the state and non-state sector; municipalities have to design and propose their local production systems; and they have to manage investments with Cubans living abroad," he stressed.

He emphasized the need for preparation so that we can collectively enhance national production, boost food production, aid in macroeconomic stabilization, increase foreign currency income for the country, expand exports, optimize the use of productive capacities, achieve changes in the energy matrix, and foster a proper relationship between state and non-state sectors.

The Cuban President urged the members of the Council of Ministers to work diligently and intelligently, with thorough analysis and control, maintaining high standards and discipline, leveraging potential opportunities, and questioning everything that fails to progress.

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