Cuba Denounces Devastating Impact of U.S. Blockade on Childhood at UNICEF<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDuring the event, the Cuban leader assessed the country\u2019s economic situation, highlighting challenges that demand \u201cunity, ideological firmness, courage, audacity and creative resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe context is extraordinarily complex and challenging due to the incessant aggressiveness of the intensified economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the U.S. government and the criminal purpose of the hostile actions of the current administration: first, the inclusion of Cuba on the infamous and spurious list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism, and other equally false accusations that seek to discredit the government\u2019s authority, while depriving the country of any source of foreign currency income,\u201d Diaz-Canel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cuban leader defended the reforms approved the previous day by the Communist Party, calling them \u201cnecessary and not deferrable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a speech that lasted about 40 minutes, Diaz-Canel outlined the direction of Cuban economic policy, which can be summarized in the following 12 statements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Solutions, not Delays<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThese are not new ideas; they are decisions the country discussed and approved years ago. The mistake was not in proposing them, but in having postponed them. And that stage of postponement must end \u2026 Cuba does not need more delays; it needs solutions. It is not about creating more offices or multiplying meetings, but about achieving concrete results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to Reality<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cReality imposes urgent and necessary changes on us. And when people\u2019s lives become so hard, the first duty of the Communist Party of Cuba and the revolutionary government is not to explain the crisis better; it is to change whatever must be changed to overcome it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Executable Transformations<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cA deep and agile economic agenda is required, executable in the short term, that combines macroeconomic stabilization, incentives to stimulate and promote productive opening, legal security, attraction of investment, intensive use of technology and focused and effective social protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Areas for Immediate Action<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt is necessary to advance on at least five simultaneous fronts: macroeconomic stabilization and recovery of external income; transformation of the economic and social model; stimulation and recovery of the agricultural productive sector; strengthening of accounting and cost management; and the anticipation and mitigation of the social costs associated with the necessary transformations of the economic and social model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Non-Deferrable Decisions<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWhat we propose to set in motion is an emergency economic and social agenda \u2026 along with decisions that cannot keep waiting. Some will not have absolute consensus, but they are not deferrable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Real Prices<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe need to unleash productive forces, so that there is more production instead of more restriction. Because it has been proven that control without supply only shifts operations to the informal market\u2026 True social justice is not sustained on artificial prices that later end up becoming scarcity, lines, low wages and illegal markets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social Justice<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIf there is no wealth, there is nothing to distribute. We would be talking about social justice in the abstract \u2026 And we have to produce wealth ourselves. And if there is no wealth, there is no social justice. Either we produce under these conditions, create wealth and then distribute with social justice, with equity, not with egalitarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign Investment<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe must not only tell the foreign investor where to invest, but also let him take the initiative to invest in the economic sector of his interest, as well as directly choose his workers without state intermediaries\u2026 We must always authorize direct foreign investment in the national private sector, including MSMEs, with clear rules on ownership, repatriation, reinvestment and dispute resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Debt-for-Asset Swaps <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe must conduct a process of debt-for-asset swaps, focused fundamentally on swapping national assets for debts, without alienating ownership of them in perpetuity. With this mechanism, financing and other benefits can be achieved without losing the property rights over the assets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Legal Security<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cLegal security must be guaranteed \u2014 contracts, usufructs, leases, concessions, surface rights and licenses with temporal stability and protection against arbitrary changes. If there is no legal security, no one invests, no one takes risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense of Socialism<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe transformations we are presenting are to advance in the defense of socialism, to support and expand social justice, to create economic wealth and distribute it with equity, not with egalitarianism. That is the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: teleSUR English<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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