
{"id":243164,"date":"2021-09-02T11:37:54","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=243164"},"modified":"2021-09-02T11:37:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:37:54","slug":"the-train-of-economic-reforms-in-cuba-picks-up-speed-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economy\/the-train-of-economic-reforms-in-cuba-picks-up-speed-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"The train of economic reforms in Cuba picks up speed (III)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On August 19, 2021, the expected legislation that updates the general provisions for the exercise of self-employment, regulates the creation and operation of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the rules that regulate the constitution and operation of cooperatives in non-agricultural sectors (CNA), that is, in industry and services,<\/span><sup><b>1 <\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was published in the Ordinary <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gacetaoficial.gob.cu\/es\/gaceta-oficial-no-94-ordinaria-de-2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gaceta Oficial No. 94<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, other Decree-laws on personal contraventions in the exercise of self-employment and social security and the tax system for workers of all these forms of property were included, and a Decree that specifies the activities that MSMEs, CNAs and self-employment<\/span><sup><b>2<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> cannot carry out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This legal body, systematized and backed by two resolutions of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), comes to fill gaps and rectify mistakes in previous legislation; it constitutes a great advance in what has to do with articulating the different forms of ownership and management within an increasingly diverse and complex economy. It is also an approximation, one more step in a process of structural change and legal framework of the Cuban socialist economic system, which is advancing on that path dubbed \u201cupdating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It covers the forms of private ownership and management: it recognizes the difference between individual and family work, and that of up to three employees, of private MSMEs. It creates the possibility of establishing state or public and joint MSMEs. It institutionalizes the so-called \u201cnon-agricultural\u201d cooperatives, concluding the experiment that took a decade to become consolidated and promises to undertake a necessary relaunch. It defines for the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/tag\/cuban-private-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">private sector<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the activities it will not yet be able to carry out. In this article, we\u2019ll take a look at what these laws say, and what they don\u2019t say, and explain some of their economic implications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Euphemisms and denials<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terminology is frequently used in the official discourse and media, and even the academic one, which denotes reluctance to face realities and ideological dilemmas, but what it does is reduce clarity and transparency, for example: saying \u201cupdate\u201d when in reality we are talking about reforms; saying \u201cself-employed workers\u201d instead of private workers; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/tag\/cuban-enterprises\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">socialist state enterprise<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as if it had two surnames, when many still are not and should set the goal of achieving it (socialist state enterprise is not a definition, but an aspiration); calling enterprise \u2014 until now \u2014 only the state ones, not including cooperatives and future MSMEs, which are also enterprises; considering entrepreneurs only the private ones, when every person who directs or engages in an organized economic activity is one. These are euphemisms, reticence, allusions that create negative or incomplete images, and that serve to divide rather than unite.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the worst are the enthroned negative identities: \u201cforms of non-state management,\u201d which even has its initials (FGNE), are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">private and cooperative<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> forms of management; \u201cnon-agricultural cooperatives\u201d (CNA) are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">industrial and service<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> work cooperatives. And still the new legislation, despite the advances, differentiates and separates the industrial and service cooperatives from the agricultural cooperatives, which are governed by another legal framework, when all over the world there is talk and legislation about cooperatives, covering both and others, which Cuba has not yet contemplated incorporating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Self-employment<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decree-Law 44\/2021 \u201cOn the exercise of Self-Employment,\u201d authorizes three forms: the autonomous worker who works independently; an individual authorized to hire up to three workers; and a family project, which includes first degree relatives of consanguinity and affinity who work with that self-employed worker. Now self-employment is not associated with an activity, but with work projects, which can include in their design all those activities that are not expressly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economy\/cuban-economy\/cuba-publishes-list-of-prohibited-activities-for-private-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prohibited<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cuban citizens and foreigners permanently residing in the national territory can exercise self-employment. The self-employed can market their products and services to Cuban and foreign individuals and legal entities and make payments through a current account opened in a Cuban bank. They can export goods and services that they generate and import raw materials or goods that ensure their productions, through authorized state exporting and importing entities. They include creators and artists and individual agricultural producers. They must set up an employment contract with the workers they hire, under the terms provided in the Labor Code, and the hired workers can sign employment contracts with more than one employer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Municipal Procedures Offices are created, where interested persons submit their application to exercise self-employment, which will also be in charge of providing information and advice, processing applications, permits and consultations, in correspondence with the work project to be carried out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>MSMEs<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP) authorizes the creation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MSMEs are economic units with legal status, state-owned, private or joint. In my first <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economy\/train-of-economic-reforms-in-cuba-picks-up-speed-i\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">article,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I explained their characteristics and main powers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The MSMEs adopt the form of Limited Liability Company (SRL), with business autonomy. As legal entities, they contract goods and services with other subjects, state and private, under equal conditions. They will be able to export and import; manage and administer their assets; define the products and services to be marketed, as well as their suppliers, clients, destinations and market insertion; operate bank accounts and access financing; set the prices of their services and goods; define their structure, staff and number of workers; determine the income of their workers respecting the established minimum wages; make the investments that are required; create establishments inside or outside the province where their registered office is located; and access the financing funds established for them. The corporate purpose of MSMEs is that agreed by the partners in the Bylaws, within the authorized activities. Individuals cannot be members of more than one private MSME.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Industrial and Service Work Cooperatives (CTIS)<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the triumph of the Revolution until 2012, the only authorized cooperatives in Cuba were agricultural ones. As of that year, the country\u2019s Council of Ministers began to approve the experimental constitution of the first non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA), which we prefer to classify as industrial and service work cooperatives (CTIS). From the beginning, the CNAs were classified as an experiment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until March 2014, 498 CTIS were approved, in the sectors of commerce and gastronomy, construction, technical and personal services, recovery of raw materials, light industry, public transportation and energy. Of the total approved cooperatives, 77% arose from the state activities that were handed over to their workers (induced cooperatives) and 23% arose from the non-state sector, at the request of self-employed persons interested in associating (grassroots cooperatives). The absence of university professions among the 128 self-employed activities then authorized limited the number of grassroots cooperatives, despite the many requests received by the authorities.<\/span><sup><b>3<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidencia.gob.cu\/media\/filer\/public\/2021\/06\/18\/conceptos_lineamientos.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">La Conceptualizaci\u00f3n del Modelo Econ\u00f3mico y Social Cubano de Desarrollo<\/a>, 2016 (<\/em><\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Development Model)<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in its Article 159, establishes that cooperatives \u201cform part of the socialist ownership system\u2026being the object of special attention\u201d among the forms of non-state ownership.<\/span><sup><b>4<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> However, in practice, the CTIS raised much questioning and criticism.<\/span><sup><b>5 <\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of cooperatives in operation increased annually to reach 439 in 2017, but thereafter began to decline to 421 in 2020.<\/span><sup><b>6<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In the process, many of those who asked to create cooperatives were discouraged and gave up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Decree-Law No. 47 the experiment finally ended. It establishes that \u201cthe cooperative is an economic entity, of a business nature, that is constituted based on the voluntary association of people who contribute money, other goods and rights to satisfy the economic, social and cultural needs of its proprietary partners, as well as of social interest, supported by their work and in the effective exercise of the universally recognized principles of cooperativism.\u201d<\/span><sup><b>7<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They are freed from the tutelage of the organisms of the Central State Administration that constituted their related bodies \u2014 and that did not always support them \u2014 and the order of the conduct of the process that the Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development had is annulled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its place, the National Council of Economic Actors will be created, chaired by the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), as the \u201cinter-institutional governing body of policies and regulations concerning cooperatives,\u201d to \u201cdesign and propose public support policies for the promotion, strengthening and development of MSMEs and non-agricultural cooperatives.\u201d<\/span><sup><b>8<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The application for the creation of cooperatives is presented to the MEP and the Council of Ministers approves it, a process that is still excessively centralized, but which is justified in this initial stage, in which not all territories are in a position to assume this task.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What they CANNOT do<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Decree 49\/2021 includes the list of unauthorized activities to be carried out by MSMEs, CNAs and the self-employed.<\/span><sup><b>9<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The list exemplifies the political and economic limits that still persist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It includes a good number of professional activities, including accounting, business management consultancy, architecture, engineering, advertising, printing of publicity material, public relations, market research, environmental and veterinary consultancy for agricultural animals. It means that most of the commercial and business services that cooperatives and MSMEs \u2014 and also state enterprises \u2014 will need to operate and increase their productivity are prohibited for all non-state entities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why is there this fierce resistance to allowing the majority of Cuban professionals to autonomously practice? It has never been clearly explained, but perhaps it is because of the fear that professionals will leave the state sector and go to the private sector en masse. But haven\u2019t they already gone into non-professional jobs in droves in the country, or even left the active workforce altogether? And, worse still, haven\u2019t they left the country en masse to practice their profession or any trade or job that pays them more, or at least offers them more hope for the future? \u201cThe private exercise of a profession does not imply the privatization of the means of production where this professional works, and much less for the professions mentioned above,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economy\/cuban-economy\/economic-reform-in-cuba-principles-and-pseudo-principles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the economist Oscar Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only is it an economic nonsense that limits the development of the productive forces of all forms of ownership and management and slows down local development, but, worse, it is something that has been violated in practice, with the full knowledge of the authorities. Examples abound: bookkeepers that already practice accounting and business consulting, including the state-owned; architects and engineers turned contractors; designers and journalists who have created advertising agencies; veterinarians who tend farm animals. Wouldn\u2019t it be better to legalize their work?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prohibitions also cover other activities that are frequently openly exercised, such as the sale of imported goods without a commercial character and the storage and warehousing of products. Other unauthorized activities have to do with the tourism sector: travel agencies and tour operators (guides), sale of services and organization of travel packages; management of sport fishing, including diving, mountain guide.<\/span><sup><b>10<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> All of the above seems to contradict <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cubadebate.cu\/noticias\/2021\/03\/29\/el-turismo-cubano-continuara-siendo-la-locomotora-de-la-economia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what was said in March<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Prime Minister and former Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero: \u201cWe have many strengths, we have a very big inventory of tourism products, but we have not been able to take full advantage of them, and we are at a time where we must redesign all tourism products.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunately, the minister of labor and social security <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cubadebate.cu\/noticias\/2021\/08\/11\/novedades-sobre-las-mipymes-cooperativas-no-agropecuarias-y-el-ejercicio-del-trabajo-por-cuenta-propia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">advanced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the list of prohibited activities can be modified and updated, and we hope so this will be so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>They are all cooperatives\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2020 there were a total of 5,278 cooperatives in Cuba, of them 421 were non-agricultural and 4,857 agricultural of different types.<\/span><sup><b>11<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As until 2012 they were the only authorized cooperatives, they have their own history, characteristics and legislation, which makes Cuba the only country that in this way differentiates agricultural cooperatives from those established for industrial and service work. In the Americas, only Cuba, Haiti, and the United States lack a General Cooperative Law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most recent legislation related to agricultural cooperatives (CA) is Decree-Law No. 365\/2018.<\/span><sup><b>12<\/b><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Armando Nova, economist and professor at the University of Havana, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipscuba.net\/espacios\/cooperativas-agropecuarias-de-cuba-en-peligro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">warned<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that agricultural cooperatives were facing difficulties that compromised their existence. \u201cIn Decree-Law 365, the centralizing character prevails, in the management and dependence on the State Agricultural Enterprise, as well as the secondary role of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) is limited to consultation and not as an important decision-making party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In June of this year, a MINAG <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cubadebate.cu\/noticias\/2021\/06\/21\/cuando-la-tierra-puede-administrarse-mejor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proposal was presented<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to strengthen and consolidate agricultural cooperatives. The proposal seeks to address the deficiencies of these productive structures, grant them more autonomy and fill the gaps and legislative contradictions. It includes, among the solutions, dissolving a group of cooperatives and unifying others, experimentally developing second-degree cooperatives \u2014 the union of several primary cooperatives into a higher organization \u2014 and creating an Institute for Cooperative Promotion and Development. It has not been specified whether this Institute will cover only agricultural or all cooperatives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is not even talk in official circles of expanding cooperativism to include housing cooperatives \u2014 social construction of habitat \u2014, renewable energy, child care, care for the elderly and the disabled, and others such as consumer cooperatives,<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/cubayeconomia.blogspot.com\/2021\/08\/cooperativas-de-consumidores-pensando.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which have been proposed so much<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by specialists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is needed is a General Cooperatives Law in Cuba, prepared with the participation of cooperative leaders and with feedback through consultation processes in cooperatives, which integrates in a single legal body the laws and regulations that govern the entire cooperative ecosystem of the country. We need true socialist cooperatives if we want the ideology of capitalism to not be reproduced in the private sector. And that the existing cooperatives do not choose to become MSMEs, which is provided by law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>By successive approximations<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A decade after beginning the process of \u201cupdating\u201d the economic and social model of the country and having created the necessary conditions \u2014 as was the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/tag\/monetary-reorganization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">monetary reorganization<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 the State is issuing a series of Decrees and resolutions that will allow a quantitative and qualitative leap in production, employment, relations between enterprises and endogenous development, even in the difficult conditions in which the country finds itself. The different forms of ownership and management are beginning to be organized and articulated, without so many prejudices and focused on the necessary local development. There is still a long way to go, but as the notable economist Regino Boti Le\u00f3n said, we will arrive \u201cby successive approximations,\u201d but we will get to a more prosperous and socialist country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notes:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Decree-Law 46\/2021 \u201cOn Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises\u201d (GOC-2021-777-O94); Decree-Law 44\/2021 \u201cOn the Exercise of Self-Employment\u201d; Decree-Law 47\/2021 \u201cOn Non-Agricultural Cooperatives\u201d (GOC-2021-778-O94)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Decree-Law 45\/2021 \u201cOn personal contraventions in the exercise of Self-Employment\u201d (GOC-2021-776-O94); Decree-Law 48\/2021 \u201cOn the Special Social Security Scheme for self-employed workers, members of non-agricultural cooperatives and of micro, small and medium-sized private enterprises\u201d (GOC-2021-779-O94); Decree-Law 49\/2021 \u201cAmending Law 113 of the Tax System,\u201d of July 23, 2012. (GOC-2021-780-O94); Decree 49\/2021 \u201cOn the activities to be carried out by micro, small and medium-sized private enterprises, non-agricultural cooperatives and self-employed workers\u201d (GOC-2021-781-O94).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Camila Pi\u00f1eiro Harnecker, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Diagn\u00f3stico preliminar de las cooperativas no agropecuarias<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Center for Studies on the Cuban Economy, University of Havana. May 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>4<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> PCC, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Development Model and National Plan for Economic and Social Development until 2030<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Havana, 2016, p. 10.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>5<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ra\u00fal Castro, Speech delivered at the closing of the 9th Ordinary Period of Sessions of the 8th Legislature of the National Assembly of People\u2019s Power. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Granma<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, July 14, 2017; Figueredo Reinaldo, O. \u201cNuevas normas jur\u00eddicas para las cooperativas no agropecuarias en Cuba\u201d. Cubadebate, September 15, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>6<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ONEI, Statistical Yearbook of Cuba 2020, Edition 2021, Ch. 4. Institutional Organization, p. 5.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>7<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Decree-Law 47\/2021 \u201cOn Non-Agricultural Cooperatives\u201d (GOC-2021-778-O94), Article 2.1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>8<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Idem. Art. 5.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>9<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Decree 49\/2021 \u201cOn the activities to be carried out by micro, small and medium-sized private enterprises, non-agricultural cooperatives and self-employed workers\u201d (GOC-2021-781-O94). Sole Annex.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>10<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Idem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>11<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ONEI, Statistical Yearbook of Cuba 2020, Edition 2021, Ch. 4. Institutional Organization, p. 5.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>12<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Decree-Law No. 365\/2018 \u201cOn Agricultural Cooperatives\u201d (GOC-2019-464-O37), May 24, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New legislation, lights and shadows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":243168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13903],"tags":[14816,19494,33476],"ppma_author":[33596],"class_list":["post-243164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-cuban-economy","tag-cuban-enterprises","tag-monetary-reogranization"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The train of economic reforms in Cuba picks up speed (III) | OnCubaNews 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