The creation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) are now a reality in Cuba, an option encouraged by the state to strengthen the country’s development with oue own resources.
Open since September 20, the call to register these businesses gives prevalence to activities such as food production, goods and services exports, local development, circular economy and recycling, science, technology and innovation, to which manufacturing and computer science services have been recently added.
Experts believe that the constitution of these figures lead to a more flexible restructuring of the national economy, closer to the production activity and services of each territory in Cuba.
Alexander Brito Brito, president of the Cienfuegos branch of the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba, thinks that the MSMEs nurtures from the economic environment of the territories by the emergence of new entities that will have an horizontal relationship. “It will favor productive chains and it will reinforce the strategic design of development. Likewise, it will promote the consolidation of part of the state sector that seeks higher productive levels and efficiency in their processes,” he added.
He pointed out that the private actor now earns the level of entrepreneur because they are running a business with new responsibilities and obligations and, as part of its growth, it can go from micro to small to medium enterprise and have an impact at the national level.
NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCAL PROGRESS
In the province of Cienfuegos, for example, 245 self-employed workers and three local development projects with potential to transition to MSMEs or Non-Agricultural Cooperatives (NAC) have been identified. At the same time, assessments are being conducted of some state enterprises.
A business dedicated to the maintenance of green areas, SERVIMAV (Green Areas Maintenance Service), is the first MSME approved in the province, in the municipality of Palmira. “We immediately saw the opportunity to begin with an activity with high demand in the territory,” said Andrés Guerra Monzón, senior partner of this micro business.
He explained that the services of the enterprise (comprised of two partners and an expected personnel of 12 workers) will include the pruning and cutting down of trees, mowing and manual cutting of the lawn, waste collection and transportation and it will provide these services to sport fields, children parks, docks and airports, among others.
“Once we have established, we will begin to look for possible clients such as the Power Company, Communal Services, Highway Maintenance Services, Radiocuba, among others,” Guerra Monzón added.
The advantages of the MSMEs made Osiel Gil Falcón, partner at the Numancia Carpenter’s Workshop, in Cienfuegos, to take the step of becoming a micro enterprise. Two mini-industries for fruit and vegetable processing (from the municipalities of Lajas and Aguada de Pasajeros), and Jovero Verde tourist office, in Cumanayagua, are weighing the benefits of becoming MSMEs.
Yainelys González Menéndez, expert on Local Development Projects, said there are several incentives for the rest of the economic actors:
-The tax on earnings of only 15 %
-Sales tax of only 5 %
-Prices of goods and services are set by agreement among the parties
-No custom taxes for the import of equipment and technology
-Access to bank credits in freely convertible currency is available
Young entrepreneur Orelvis Bormey Torres never imagined that his idea to conquer the popular favor with a product like peanut would impose the way it did for the pleasure of thousands of people both in Cuba and abroad who prefer the taste of the various products created by him.
His passion for that grain comes from the crib. His grandparents and parents used to make a living cultivating peanut among other crops in his hometown Quemado de Güines, where they used to make exquisite turrones. Later on, when Orelvis was a student at the Marta Abreu Central University of Las Villas (UCLV), he transformed that family passion into a source of income and started to make his own sweets in 2004.
That is how the idea of The house of peanut in Santa Clara came to life. The quality of this brand, with a 100 % Cuban product, goes beyond the national market and it has even gathered a following in the United States, Italy, Canada and Germany, among other countries.
With such credentials and the first successful export of 5,000 bars of peanut to Italy last year, the approval of his business as one of the first 35 MSMEs has come to help Bormey’s dream of expanding his thriving business and appeal to other markets in Cuba and abroad.
The young industrial engineer, who runs a business that manufactures over 30 products, including turrones, grains, candies and confectionery, all based on the oilseed and other nuts and processed fruits, describes this step as transcendental for the individual and the country’s economy.
“Becoming the medium-sized enterprise Bormey srl means that we now have legal personality which allows us to celebrate contracts both for the purchase of consumables and for the export to other parts of the country and abroad,” said the young man, who also speaks of the demand to optimize the quality in all processes.
The measure, he expressed, has been definite in the lifting of the hurdles that slowed down the development of the project and also give the business credit advantages derived from a better determination of the corporate assets of the enterprise.
Another benefit is that they can enter contracts with the farmers who supply the raw material, and to whom they can pay in either national currency or freely convertible currency, once the exports have been made since they would be in conditions to buy consumables that will help them make their state grow.
For that purpose, he requested around one hundred hectares of land to the Agriculture Ministry. In that extension of land, he could harvest, in two crops a year, the 150 tons of peanut he needs to keep the level of production, the new entrepreneur explained, aware of the importance of the partnership with the farmers in Encrucijada and Quemado de Güines, main producers of the grain in Villa Clara.
This business has also made him established links with the UCLV, specifically the Interface Society, to manage and take part in the development of varieties of fruits and grains of higher quality and yield.
He also has working ties with the Research Institute of the Food Industry, the Center for Fishing Research and its certified laboratory, the Territorial Office of Normalization and Vegetable Health, among others, with which he has negotiated at the institutional level.
Convinced of the success lying ahead, he emphasizes, “If Bormey succeeds, the mediu-sized enterprises succeed too, and the province and the country, in another way to move Cuba forward.”
IN CONTEXT
-The Ministry of Economy and Planning has received over 550 requests to establish MSMEs.
-None has been declined thus far.
-Some 102 MSMEs and two non-agricultural cooperatives have been approved.
-In Cuba there are more than 2,000 state enterprises and more than 600,000 self-employed workers, 52,000 of which hire personnel and over 5,000 have more than three employees.
-The tendency is for self-employed workers to organize an MSME or cooperative.
-Given the impact of the pandemic, many self-employed workers have modified their activities.
- Only Cuban citizens residing in Cuba may establish a MSME or cooperative. (Translated by ESTI)
