Searching for solutions, not problems

HAVANA – The CubaEmprende project, in collaboration with AUGE (a business consultancy), has published a document with a detailed compilation of the initiatives that numerous private businesses have carried out in recent months to collaborate from various fronts in Cuba’s fight against the coronavirus.

The documented, disseminated through their social networks, aims to collect information to show the role that small businesses can play — included are small businesses not yet legally recognized — from different perspectives in the sustainable development of the Cuban nation.

Many of the Cuban private enterprises are collaborating at the local level to meet needs in the face of the unprecedented circumstances caused by COVID-19. There is a vast catalogue of examples offered: from the production of safety equipment for medical personnel on the front lines of the battle against the disease, to the expansion of delivery systems for numerous products for those isolated at home, the manufacture of face masks, and even the donation of products — especially food and grooming essentials.

Ideas included in the brochure were judged using two simple criteria: that they showed the value of the entrepreneurial community in the current circumstances, and that they were of public knowledge. Later the series will continue its publications with other initiatives of this type that were not registered in this first edition, according to William Bello Sánchez, coordinator of the Oasis program for Corporate Social Responsibility of the CubaEmprende project.

So far, Professor Bello Sánchez believes the private sector has operated in the country under a situation where demand is greater than supply, which has allowed it to grow, even with restrictions. It is a sector that has fostered the diversification of products and services, which satisfies numerous needs and expectations of different market segments, and which has also generated the largest number of jobs in the last decade with wages above Cuba’s official average income. Bello Sánchez says the private sector has “created jobs for half a million Cubans.” In addition, he says, taxes collected are significant and constitute an important resource for the state to project different investments for social and developmental benefits.

(Visit Progreso Weekly to read the full article. Click on link below to read the report by Proyecto CubaEmprende.)