Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the Communist Party’s politburo on Thursday that the country’s communist model needed “urgent changes” to overcome the ongoing crisis fueled by the United States’ oil blockade.
“The situation calls for urgent and necessary changes,” Diaz-Canel said at a meeting to fast-track reforms to boost the private sector and attract more capital from Cubans who have fled the crisis abroad.
The President referenced the models of China and Vietnam to facilitate opening Cuba’s economy to the world to “create economic wealth and distribute it equally”.
He said some of the reforms “will not have absolute consensus but cannot be postponed”.
Diaz-Canel reasoned that “when people’s lives become this hard”, the Communist Party and the government had a responsibility to “change what needs to be changed” instead of trying to explain away the crisis.
Despite U.S President Donald Trump’s oil blockade in January bringing the island nation to the verge of collapse, Diaz-Canel said there were “obstacles that don’t come from outside, nor the blockade”. He highlighted “slowness, bureaucracy and norms that impede those who want to produce” along with “decisions that we have put off”.
The Communist Party approved the reforms on Wednesday. Former President Raul Castro, who was recently indicted by the Trump administration over his alleged role in downing two planes operated by an anti-Castro group in 1996, welcomed the reforms and said it was “the most beneficial to the revolution at this time”.
National Assembly approves reforms
The National Assembly unanimously approved 176 historic free-market reforms later on Thursday, rolling back the state’s role in the economy and attracting investment in various sectors such as banking, tourism, and agriculture.
Under these reforms, foreign investors no longer need to form joint ventures with the state, large private enterprises will be authorised, and both Cuban and foreign investors can acquire stakes in state companies.
