Wealthy Cuban Americans hope to start loan program for small businesses on island

Posted on Tue, Sep. 12, 2006

Wealthy Cuban Americans hope to start loan program for small businesses
on island
BY CASEY WOODS
cwoods@MiamiHerald.com

The key to Cuba's economic future lies in the hands of its most humble
would-be entrepreneurs, according to a group of Cuban-American business
leaders -- a belief that led them to create a new program of
small-business loans they hope the Cuban government will soon allow them
to implement.

''We need to use our experience as Cuban entrepreneurs to help those on
the island,'' said Miami businessman and Cuba Study Group co-chair
Carlos Saladrigas at a press conference today.

The program would work by giving microloans to people who want to start
or expand a small enterprise, such as selling handcrafts to tourists.
The initiative would arrange for local Cuban-American entrepreneurs to
provide expertise to recipients of the loans.

The Cuba Study Group, a Washington-based nonpartisan organization, has
pledged $10 million in start-up funds for the initiative.

Saladrigas emphasized that the most significant obstacle to the program
are Cuban laws limiting private businesses, so an important audience for
today's message was the Cuban government itself.

''We hope the government of Cuba will act in benefit of the Cuban
people,'' he said. ``As soon as Cuban law allows this, we will find a
way to carry it out.''

U.S. laws also limit how much Cuban Americans and Cuban exiles can send
to their direct family members -- spouses, parents, children and
siblings -- still living on the island to no more than $300 every three
months. No money may be sent to cousins, aunts or uncles or nephews and
nieces.

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