NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brazil is ready to help Cuba develop small and mid-sized businesses in order to support the economic development of the communist island, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said on Monday.
Cooperation in the business area was among the topics discussed by Amorim with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Saturday, the minister told reporters in New York, where he will attend the United Nation’s General Assembly this week.
Amorim said Brazil has extensive experience in fostering entrepreneurship to develop its formal economy.
Cuba, he added, will need that expertise to help its private sector absorb the 500,000 state workers which the government plans to lay off by March, as part of a strategy to make its economy more efficient.
“It doesn’t pay off for Cuba to move 500,000 workers out of the public sector if they fall into the informal economy,” said Amorim. He said the layoffs are a “very courageous” move by Havana.
More than 5 million people, or 85 percent of Cuba’s labor force, work for the Soviet-styled one-party state, many of them in unproductive jobs.
The decision to move the half a million workers to the private sector is seen as the most important policy move by Havana since President Raul Castro took over day-to-day governing from his ailing brother Fidel Castro in 2006. He formally assumed the presidency in 2008.
“I believe Cuba’s evolution — and I use this word deliberately — is a process that will increase opportunities,” Amorim said, adding that Cuba will probably need the help from countries such as Brazil which have close ties with Havana.
