Roundup: Cuban Communist Party reviews progress, mistakes of reform process

HAVANA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's ruling Communist Party (PCC) has been analyzing the progress and errors made since President Raul Castro promoted economic and social reforms in 2011, the official daily Granma said Tuesday.

The study was ordered by Castro to review all the promoted policies and find out precisely what had gone well, what should be rectified and the obstacles hampering the implementation of the measures, said the newspaper.

Marino Murillo Jorge, head of the permanent commission for the implementation of the reforms, said the analysis looked at the policies which met legal standards and had been in place long enough to have an impact.

"The first three years were characterized by a high rate of implementation of policies, which was later reduced due to the complexity of the measures and mistakes in planning and control," said Murillo.

He stressed to the members of the PCC Central Committee, gathered in its fifth plenum, that economic and financial constraints had also prevented a group of measures requiring investments from gathering support.

Among the difficulties in advancing its plans, the PCC admitted that not all state agencies were involved in the changes.

For this reason, Cuban top political leaders assured that the continuity of the "updating of the economic and social model" will now involve a greater participation and responsibility of state agencies.

From 2016 to 2017, efforts were mainly directed at perfecting what had already been achieved. These priorities included maintaining the monetary and exchange unification and the plan for economic and social development by 2030.

The government admitted that the circulation of two currencies in Cuba and the existence of privileged exchange rates for the state sector had provoked serious distortions within the national economy and discontent among the people.

To address this concern, experts expect the government to take measures in the second semester of this year.

Concerning the private sector, the authorities disclosed that new legal norms to support it were already signed.

Over 30,000 public officials and 580,000 workers from the private sector will receive training on the new regulations.

Castro considered that "despite the mistakes and inadequacies the situation is more favorable than a few years ago," as quoted by Granma.

Raul Castro took office in February 2008 due to the serious illness that affected his elder brother Fidel Castro.

Since the beginning of his time in power, Raul Castro has focused on economic advances, which have included over 300 reforms aimed at moving the country beyond its ongoing economic crisis.

These changes include the opening and fostering of the private sector as a source of products and services, the granting of idle land to new farmers for food production, and a policy directed at attracting foreign investors.

However, his good intentions have stumbled due to the economic and financial limitations imposed by the economic crisis, the continuing U.S. embargo, and many officials' misunderstanding of his aims, with Castro calling on them to "change their mentality" according to the new times, said the newspaper. Enditem