378,000 entrepreneurs

There are 378,000 licensed entrepreneurs in Cuba, Granma reports, citing figures for the beginning of June.  At the beginning of March the figure was 371, 200, and less than two years ago there were about 143,000.  If the growth of small entrepreneurs is slowing, then the next spurt in private sector employment may have to come from non-farm cooperatives, which are in the pilot project stage.

The Granma article is about tax administration and the burden of processing returns from so many new taxpayers.  In Cuba as here, irregularities in your return sometimes result in an audit. In general, the article says tax compliance is good; 90.5 percent of returns were in on time.

Senate hearing on Cuba policy

Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson testified before the Senate’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee today, which held a hearing on Cuba policy.  She broke no new ground and defended the Administration’s policies regarding travel and remittances. 

The Hill reports that only Senators Menendez and Rubio were there.  They complained about the Administration’s easing of travel restrictions, calling it “naive.” 

“A traveling salesman of the most retrograde and anti-Cuban ideas”

In today’s Gramna, a very special welcome to President Obama’s next National Security Council director for this hemisphere. 

Offshore oil exploration continues

Granma runs an announcement, based on information provided by Cuban oil company CUPET, that the Repsol exploration effort was “without results.”  This is the first time the news has been carried in Cuban media.  It also announced that the exploration rig has moved west and as of May 24 has been working in a bloc where it is operated by PC Gulf of Malaysia with participation by Russia’s Gezpromneft.  Following that, the rig will move to another bloc where exploration will be carried out by Venezuela’s PDVSA.

Show me the money

Two recent articles in Trabajadores lament the delay in implementing the incentive pay schemes called for in the Party’s lineamientos last year. 

In restaurants in Santiago, revenues are up but salaries have not been adjusted, and workers are not pleased.  And this survey of Las Tunas province also shows delays in implementing incentive pay.  In one example, an administrator of an organoponico, an urban food growing cooperative, complains that workers receive smaller profit distributions because of the payments that are made to two state enterprises.  He doesn’t like the fact that his workers are helping “to defray the spending of the less productive” in the state sector.  

The articles, and many others like them, seem to show state media being used as a tool to nudge the reform process along, or at least to show the public that there’s official recognition that progress is slow.

Odds and ends

Some catching up to do…

·         A great article on Cuba’s Latin American Medical School from Catherine Porter of the Toronto Star.  The school has 116 Americans enrolled, she reports.

·         Repsol is “almost certain” that it’s done exploring for oil in Cuba; see stories from AP and the Herald.

·         Juventud Rebelde: The “social movement” of 52,000 Venezuelans who have received medical care in Cuba in the past 11 years has joined the coalition that aims to garner ten million votes for President Chavez in the October election.

·         AFP: Secretary Clinton had a meeting with Judy Gross, wife of jailed USAID contractor Alan Gross.

·         The Hill: Senator Rubio makes his first trip to Cuba by visiting the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo.

·         Internet investor Esther Dyson on a recent visit to Cuba.

·         A Cuban jurist intervewed by Trabajadores says that the labor code is being revised in ways that will favor the prívate sector.  Asked about the kinds of labor complaints that are emerging in the new private sector, she said no significant complaints have come about.

·         Radio Rebelde: From January through April, 92,500 homeowners registered the titles to their homes, and 140,000 did so last year according to Cuba’s Ministry of Justice.  That step, the story says, “guarantees greater legal security to property owners.”  If a property’s title is not updated and registered it cannot be sold or otherwise transferred.