Cuba Opens Fuel Retailing and Medicine Sales to Private and Foreign Firms

Cuba has lifted restrictions on private activity in gas distribution, electricity generation, waste collection and the manufacture and sale of medicines. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said "the first foreign investment project for the importation, distribution and marketing of fuel has been approved," The Hindu reported, without giving details of the investor or the terms.

Nearly 200 Cuban businesses have already received permission to distribute fuel wholesale, France 24 reported, and private firms will be allowed to import medicines to address shortages at state pharmacies. Marrero said results will come gradually. Cuban officials attribute the crisis to the American embargo, which has tightened under the current administration, while Reuters reporting notes that Cuban small and medium enterprises lack the capital to invest in these sectors on their own, so the openings depend on foreign money arriving.

The decision follows years of rolling blackouts, water cuts and shortages of food and medicine. Havana is conceding, in practice, that a state monopoly on importing and distributing fuel and medicine cannot keep those markets supplied. Prices under the old arrangement were set administratively and the goods were simply absent. Allowing private importers to buy at world prices and sell domestically transfers the allocation decision from a ministry to a price.