The Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP) of Cuba has approved 112 requests for the creation of micro, small and medium-sized companies, reaching more than 6,000 private organizations since the regulations that allowed it came into force a year and a half ago.
“Today the MEP approved 112 applications from private MSMEs. With this decision, there are 6,273 economic actors approved since the process began in September 2021. Of these, 6,138 are private MSMEs, 75 state MSMEs, and 60 non-agricultural cooperatives,” he said. detailed the Cuban government in a statement.
Of the total number of SMEs, 52 percent of them are conversions of pre-existing businesses and 48 percent correspond to new ventures, according to data from the MEP.
A year and a half after the legal norms that included the end of the experiment of non-agricultural cooperatives and that allowed the creation of private companies for the first time since 1968, entered into force, Cuba already has more than 6,000 of these MSMEs, according to executive data.
The Cuban Government defines these companies as “economic units with legal personality, which have their own dimensions and characteristics, and whose objective is to develop the production of goods and the provision of services that satisfy the needs of society.”
It also establishes that MSMEs may be state, private or mixed property. The small ones can have a maximum of ten members, the small ones, 35, and the big ones, up to 100 people.
The companies will also be authorized to export and import in accordance with the provisions of current legislation and fix the prices of their services and goods, except those that are centrally approved.
The measures were framed in the growing economic crisis of the Caribbean country, which experienced a contraction of 11 percent of GDP in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
