Monday, September 26, 2011

Cuba designing management courses for private sector workers

Havana – Cuba's ANEC economists association is designing a training program directed at private sector workers so that they can broaden their knowledge of basic principles of accounting, expenses, costs and taxes.

Official media outlets reported Thursday that the project takes into account the "needs" of the private sector, which includes more than 333,000 people and has been growing since in October 2010 the government of Raul Castro broadened opportunities for self-employment and small business.

ANEC Vice President Maria Victoria Berrace told the state-run AIN news agency that the aim of the training course will be "to contribute to the development and better performance" of people in the expanding private sector.

Berrace emphasized that entrepreneurs must "understand the laws, contribute to the state that which is established and achieve dividends that will return profits to them."
ANEC says that some surveys show that private sector workers face "the greatest difficulties" at the time they pay taxes, and the group emphasizes that "Cubans have very little (knowledge)" of those subjects.

The government broadened the scope of private employment last October as part of a package of economic reforms, a plan that also includes labor adjustments in the state sector and forecasts in the first phase the elimination of half a million state jobs to reduce bloated government payrolls.

As per a decision by the Cabinet, this month the number of activities that one can pursue privately to earn a living will be expanded to 181, and the hiring of people in all those areas has already been approved.

According to government figures, currently 10 percent of the workers in the private sector are employees.

The majority of the business licenses awarded since October have been in activities such as food preparation, passenger transport and the sale of "household items."


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/09/22/cuba-designing-management-courses-for-private-sector-workers/#ixzz1Z4joq9Yr