Ever since President Castro first announced that Cuba was embarking on a far-reaching process of economic change there have been concerns about the implications this may have for the rest of the region.

This concern, however, seems to arise from a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of what Cuba is trying to achieve. Amid sometimes wild speculation, led largely by North American media commentary about Cuba’s changing basis for the ownership of property, cars and smaller enterprises – in many cases simply regularising legally what was already the norm – many of the facts have been lost. A careful reading of what Cuba is saying makes clear that it fundamental intent is to increase its economic efficiency by separating the role of the state and enterprises, giving the latter the freedom to manage and act independently on all but the most important strategic decisions.

In March of this year, Cuba’s Sixth Party Congress took what its leadership described as an “irrevocable decision“: this was to implement a large number of economic guidelines that will …..