Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Castro Diaz-Balart Says Cuba Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Japan

Castro Diaz-Balart Says Cuba Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Japan
October 05, 2010, 4:37 AM EDT

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, scientific adviser to
the Cuban government and son of former President Fidel Castro, said
Japan's economic development provides an example as his country
encourages more private enterprise.

"The paradigm of Japan, lacking a lot of natural resources and managing
to recover from an awful war to become the second or third economy, is
for us a good example," Castro Diaz-Balart, 61, said today in an
interview in Kyoto.

Castro Diaz-Balart, who was attending the Science and Technology in
Society forum in the western Japanese city, said Cuba's efforts to
develop the private sector are aimed at "non- strategic areas." Japan
and Cuba could form ties in fields such as biotechnology,
pharmaceuticals and education, he said.

"We have some possibilities in the future, step-by-step, to enhance our
collaboration with Japan," he said.

Cuba, which has followed a communist economic system since Castro
Diaz-Balart's father ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, last
month released plans to allow more private enterprise and shrink the
public sector. The state newspaper reported more than 500,000 government
jobs will be cut by March as part of President Raul Castro's plan to
eliminate 1 million positions to reduce inefficiencies.

--With reporting by Blake Schmidt in Granada, Nicaragua. Editor: Drew
Gibson.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-05/castro-diaz-balart-says-cuba-entrepreneurs-can-learn-from-japan.html

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