Cuban lawmakers approve sweeping reforms to socialist model amid US pressure

New Delhi ( The Indian View team) : Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved sweeping reforms backed by the Communist Party and former leader Raul Castro that would privatize a vast swath of the country’s socialist economy in a bid to survive punishing U.S. sanctions.

The ‌measures, if implemented as passed, would represent the single largest change to Cuba’s socialist model since former leader Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution and a major shift towards a market economy.

The reforms open the door to private real estate development on the Caribbean island, propose to transform state-owned businesses into private commercial ventures with shares and equity stakes and would allow private banks to enter Cuba’s once state-dominated finance sector.

They would also allow the “sale of state-owned properties to national and foreign legal entities and individuals, including Cubans residing abroad,” according to a televised presentation to lawmakers – a major change in a country where the state has long held control over land and industry.