Cuban government to contract with private sector

[Judi Lynn]

Cuban government to contract with private sector
Marc Frank
Reuters
3:44 p.m. EST, November 28, 2011

HAVANA (Reuters) - The Cuban government will begin contracting out some services to the private sector next year in a break from the state-dominated past aimed at helping small business develop, government insiders said on Monday.

They said food and cleaning, construction and some transportation services, all of which are currently done by government workers, were among those that would be contracted out in the future as Cuban leaders push ahead with more than 300 reforms to modernize the island's Soviet-style economy.

President Raul Castro is encouraging private sector growth to create jobs for the one million employees he hopes to slash from bloated government payrolls over the next few years. His goal is to strengthen Cuban communism to assure its future.

More than 350,000 people are now self-employed, more than double the number of two years ago, although most are small operations based in homes.

More:
http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-cuba-reform-privatetre7ar264-20111128,0,1146008.story

[flamingdem]

1. Thanks for this, interesting developments on the island nt