President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez met with representatives of the private sector in Cuba, contact that, he explained, will be constant with the Cuban business system, which is a single entity encompassing both state and non-state entities.
"We cannot build everything we want to do for the benefit of the country if we do not achieve this communication," he said during the meeting, which included businesspeople from the food, agriculture, energy, transportation, legal, and other sectors.
"If there is no systematic dialogue, we cannot know what we are thinking and how we are building consensus," emphasized the Head of State, who attended the meeting accompanied by Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee; Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Deputy Prime Minister; and Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, Secretary General of the Cuban Workers' Federation. Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, head of the economic department of the Central Committee, and Lázara Mercedes López Acea, president of the National Institute of Non-State Economic Actors.
Díaz-Canel affirmed that "what we are doing is to ensure Cuba's growth and to foster a healthy relationship between your aspirations as businesspeople and the aspirations of the country, so that we can combine them into a framework where everyone benefits." And, above all, he added, "we are strengthening the momentum the country needs in such complex times as these to achieve the prosperity our people require."
The Head of State advocated for increasing the country's production of food, goods, and services; reducing unproductive costs and dependence on imports of finished products; and incorporating technology, knowledge, and innovation.
It makes no sense, the president argued, to consider all economic actors in our economic and social model if they are not aligned with territorial and local development strategies and the National Development Plan.
"If the country wants to boost the energy sector, what is the role of state-owned enterprises in the energy sector? What is the role of private companies in the energy sector?" And that, he specified, must also be reflected in the numbers: "How much have you contributed to the energy sector, to job creation, to national revenue, to electricity generation?" he asked.
At the same time, Díaz-Canel was critical of issues such as illicit profits. Profit, he emphasized, must be linked to effort, results, productivity, efficiency, innovation, and the risks taken, not to speculation or price gouging that harms our people.
This sector, he urged, cannot become a breeding ground for illegal activities, tax evasion, speculation, corruption, hoarding, or price fixing that is disconnected from reality.
He specifically criticized the non-acceptance of bank transfers, a harmful practice that harms our population, and against which an offensive will continue until it is completely resolved.
The Head of State advocated for "not judging the effectiveness of an economic project, in any of its management forms, solely by what goes into a bank account, but rather, and above all, by what it contributes to a family's table, to a young person's employment, to helping a young person with potential find a place in the country to develop, to what we can do to improve a community, to what it can contribute to the economy and development of a municipality, and ultimately, to sovereignty."
Díaz-Canel assured that Cuba will move forward with the implementation of economic and social transformations, giving everyone a voice, always with an orientation toward the well-being of the people and the development of the country.
During the meeting, several business leaders shared their work experiences and discussed the prejudices and obstacles that persist at middle management levels, sometimes stemming from a lack of awareness of the 176 recently approved economic and social reforms.
They also presented new business projects and briefed the country's leadership on social programs they are developing in their communities. They explained priorities such as changing their businesses' energy sources to avoid production interruptions and advocated for being considered part of the Cuban business network in the collective challenge of moving the country forward.
