Opening Up Economic Opportunities for All Cubans
A researcher, author, and former Harvard University professor from Center Harbor, New Hampshire, Jorge I. Dominguez, Ph.D., has authored several articles and books covering economic and political policy in Latin America. In a March 2020 Cuba Program article, Dr. Jorge I. Dominguez wrote about the role of the Cuban prime minister in creating a platform for private enterprise, “Who is and what does the new Prime Minister of Cuba think?”
One of Dr. Dominguez’s central points in this article relates to how the country’s prime minister has made the private sector small firms an important part of the current economic platform, even if he does not say so explicitly. The article mentions four of the administration’s priorities: ideological issues that need to be resolved with the US, national defense, legislative activities, and of course, dealing with the economy.
While the government has opened up more opportunities for private enterprise, a number of industries are limited, and these limitations facilitate some class disparities between professions. Moreover, these disparities might culminate in the country losing its brightest workers, who seek better economic opportunities abroad.
Service-oriented businesses and some tourism companies as well as cheese, paint, and toy factories are a few of the types of enterprises that are eligible to operate as privately owned businesses. In tourism alone, some 600,000 self-employed individuals work in the privatized economy.
However, many licensed professionals who work in the health, media, and defense industries cannot open a private enterprise, which places many doctors, engineers, and other highly skilled professionals at an economic disadvantage. In fact, many self-employed people and business owners with less skills make more money than their more educated counterparts who usually only work for state-owned businesses. For Cuba, this disparity might result in professionals moving abroad in hopes of finding employment that adequately reflects their education, skills, and training.
