• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 04 / 21 / 2011

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Implementing economic reforms will take five years of hard work, President Raúl Castro said Tuesday in his closing speech of the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.

The plenum of the Party Congress unanimously approved a 311-point reform package whose content has not been made public yet.

In a final resolution, the Congress said the new economic model will “promote, in addition to state Socialist enterprises as the main actor in the national economy, the modalities of foreign investment, cooperatives, small farmers, farmers that lease land under usufruct agreements, leaseholders, the self-employed, and other forms that might emerge to contribute to an increase in efficiency.”

The reforms are being implemented on the background of austerity, Castro warned. Rising oil and food prices are causing Cuba to spend $800 million more this year than budgeted, while the country has little access to international credit. The cabinet will meet after the party congress to adjust the plan and budget that was passed in December, Castro said.

“There still is irrational spending, as well as immense efficiency reserves we must exploit with lots of common sense and political sensitivity.”

He also urged for a change in mentality. The reform “is not a miracle that can be performed overnight, as some think,” Castro said. “Its total deployment will be achieved gradually in the course of the next five years. It’s a lot of detail work, planning and coordination, on a judicial level as well as in the detailed preparation of all the people that participate in its practical implementation.”

The plenum of the Party Central Committee will gather at least twice a year to check the progress of the reforms, he said.

Source: www.cubastandard.com/2011/04/19/congress-approves-reforms-but-implementa...