The ups and downs of the process have indeed influenced the quantitative decline of the Cuban private sector, but on the other hand, it has strengthened qualitatively. Not all those who started out arrived, but those who did are now better entrepreneurs than when they began.
Some say that conditions are not favorable for the development of the Cuban business sector, and that’s true. That’s the plain truth; they could be better, and they must be better if we aspire to develop through our own efforts.
But as the popular saying goes: “It’s what there is.” And that’s the ingenuity and nature of the entrepreneur: working and developing “with what we have.”
Quórum: looking to the horizon for private enterprise sector in Cuba
Our businesspeople are no longer the same as those who, when negotiating a purchase abroad, demanded a “place in Mariel” as a condition; our businesspeople already master Incoterms, understand the customs and practices of international trade, and negotiate face-to-face with any foreign businessperson.
Our businesspeople have invested in technology to develop and expand their production. They have invested in logistics. They have diversified their supply sources abroad and, in some cases, have even expanded their activities outside the country.
There’s still much to learn and achieve, to improve the internal conditions for its development, to stimulate its growth, but in the time that has passed, the Cuban private sector has not weakened; on the contrary, it has strengthened.
We face new challenges, new scenarios, and we will have to adapt quickly; we will have to continue searching for solutions and alternatives.
Externally, our main market, the United States, does not have favorable prospects.… That’s the bad news; the good news is that the world is big.
We will have to explore and find new markets, perhaps as they say, “what happens, comes in handy.” For now, we must wait.
I’m more concerned about the internal situation, because if I were to clinically diagnose domestic policy toward the private sector, I would conclude that the patient is unbalanced, erratic, and disoriented; like in the old children’s game, no one can put the stick in the loop.
Politics is imprecise, variable, unstable, and unpredictable. I have traveled extensively with entrepreneurs to various international events, and in most cases, regarding what they see, whether productions or services, they always say: “We could do this in Cuba.”
Logically, the question that arises is: why don’t they do it? The answer is “BECAUSE THEY WON’T LET US.”
We need a dynamic, flexible policy that encourages, facilitates, and boosts the Cuban public and private business sectors.
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*This text was originally published on the author’s Facebook account. It is reproduced with his express permission.
