Cuba on Tuesday enacted a decree allowing private businesses to operate in a broad range of sectors previously reserved for the state, including banking, pharmacies, gas stations, elder-care homes, port terminals and professional services such as law, architecture and engineering, marking one of the country's most significant economic openings in decades.
The measure replaces a blanket list of prohibited private activities with a new framework that classifies industries into four categories, ranging from those permanently banned to those that private businesses may enter with government authorization. Officials said 46 previously prohibited activities have been fully opened to the private sector, while restrictions on another 35 have been eased.
Most of the newly authorized sectors will require licenses or concessions issued by the state, and implementing regulations have yet to be published, as The Miami Herald reports.
The decree builds on a package of 176 economic reforms unveiled last month as Cuba grapples with its deepest economic crisis in decades, marked by prolonged power outages, shortages of food and medicine, and increased U.S. sanctions.
The reforms also expand wholesale commerce, renewable energy generation, vehicle manufacturing, and private management of some transportation infrastructure, while preserving state control over healthcare, education, telecommunications, the media and public security.
Among the most closely watched changes is the authorization of privately operated pharmacies, a move intended to address chronic medicine shortages that have driven many Cubans to the black market. The government also authorized privately run elder-care facilities and signaled that private exchange houses could begin operating under licenses issued by Cuba's Central Bank.
The broader reform package, announced in June, represented what many economists described as Cuba's most ambitious market-oriented shift since the 1959 revolution. It includes allowing entrepreneurs to own multiple businesses, expanding import and export rights, opening private banking, permitting larger companies and reducing long-standing restrictions on private enterprise.
Experts have cautioned, however, that the reforms face significant obstacles. They note Cuba's history of reversing economic liberalization, the absence of an independent legal framework and the continued impact of U.S. sanctions, which have discouraged foreign investment. Analysts have also warned that without greater political and judicial reforms, many of the measures could prove difficult to implement.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel has rejected suggestions that the changes are a response to pressure from Washington, telling Cuba's National Assembly last week that the reforms are "the result of a sovereign decision by Cuba."
He also sought to reassure critics within the Communist Party, saying the measures would not lead to "predatory capitalism" or large-scale privatization, while insisting the country's socialist system and state control over strategic sectors would remain intact.
