Business & Economy

The Cuban authorities have received more than 83,000 license applications for self-employment since the opening to the private sector decreed by the government late last October, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security announced. The measure is an attempt to absorb part of the half million persons who will be laid off until next March.

The Cuba Ron S.A. company brought out a new brand of rum, Caney 12 years, produced in the factory of the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, rum master Tranquilino Placencia announced. According to the expert, all of the production of 2011 is already under contract.

A policy change by Cuba’s government is bringing cruiser tourism back to the Caribbean island. On Wednesday the British cruise ship Thomson Dream with over 1,500 passengers pulled into Havana Harbor for a two-night stay.

Cuba’s Cubatabaco state-run company brought a lawsuit against U.S. businessman Ismail Houmani for using in his cigar and cigarette shop a name very similar to the Casas del Habano (Cigar shops), the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald reported. The Casa de La Habana, which was opened in Michigan 10 years ago, sells cigars made in Honduras, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

The labor reform in the state sector, which will represent the laying off of half a million persons by the end of March, begins today in Cuba in the ministries of the sugar industry, agriculture, construction, public health and tourism, announced Salvador Valdés, general secretary of the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions, the only union organization in the country.

“The Cuban economy will get rid of the padding, inefficiency and formalism which has permeated it for years” with the reforms announced by the Raul Castro government, which will be discussed during the April congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, said Roberto Verrier Castro, president of the National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba.

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba, considered the island’s flagship tourist installation, today is celebrating 80 years, Antonio Martínez Rodríguez, general manager of the hotel, announced. The hotel, visited by political, sport and cultural personalities, has maintained an average occupancy rate of around 75 per cent in the last decade.

Cubans who don’t receive remittances from abroad, tips, bonuses or black market dollars were dealt another blow to their family economies as the government announced that soap, detergent and toothpaste would be removed from the rationed items starting the first of the New Year.

In a year of difficult times for cash strapped Cuba and shortages facing its citizens, an agreement between the US government and Western Union is leading to an increased value of remittances sent to families in the Caribbean country. The new authorization from the US Treasury Dept. took affect at the beginning of last week. Western Union said on its website that the change is “great news for our clients!”

Cuba will send in February several shipments of building materials and mattresses as humanitarian aid for the persons affected by the intense rains in Venezuela, Rogelio Polanco, Cuban ambassador to that South American country, announced. The aid consists of 6,900 tons of cement, 500,000 squares meters of roof tiles, 200,000 square meters of floor tiles and 32,000 foam rubber mattresses.