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Díaz-Canel says overhauling state firms «is not privatisation»

The president defended the first stage of the 176 economic measures before state company executives, with 97% of them already backed in law, while experts consulted by EFE see signs in the package of an opening towards the free market.

Miguel Díaz-Canel said the transformation of state companies «into commercial companies with shares or holdings» «is not privatisation», after 97% of the 176 economic measures, 171 in all, were given legal backing. According to his remarks, translated by Yamacoa, 215 legal rules related to them were completed in three months, state media reported, as carried by 14ymedio.

The president defended state companies against the growing private sector: «the socialist state enterprise is not a residual actor or an appendage of the administrative apparatus, it is the principal subject of the national economy and the fundamental link», in remarks translated by Yamacoa. «We will always protect the state enterprise from privatisation», he added, and framed the aim of the measures as separating ownership from management, attracting capital and improving efficiency «while maintaining social ownership as an inalienable principle».

The remarks came at a meeting with state company executives to assess the first stage of implementation across close to a dozen business groups, according to the official daily Granma as cited by 14ymedio. The official figures in that report put at 16,100 the number of private companies operating in Cuba, after 3,600 new entities were approved in the past three months.

Independent experts consulted by EFE say the package positions the private sector as «a necessary link and a fundamental axis» in the face of the crisis, and that the whole legal framework «may confirm that Cuba is heading towards the free market».

Diario de Cuba highlights that Díaz-Canel demanded more output and more hard currency from executives, but also «ideological firmness», and reports the warning from the economist Monreal: internal adjustments are no substitute for the price mechanism or for macroeconomic stability.

Sources: 14ymedio · Diario de Cuba

Data updated: 2026-11-03T16:15:00.000Z

Díaz-Canel says overhauling state firms «is not privatisation» | Yamacoa Observatory