Cuban News Agency

---

A press release recently issued by MTSS says 157,371 people were involved
in this form of employment when the process of expanding and making
self-employment more flexible began in October of 2010. 

According to the report, 65 percent of the people involved in this sector
are from the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Holguin
and Santiago de Cuba.

The largest number of licenses has been granted for the preparation and
selling of food and hiring employees mostly (75%) for food service
facilities. Next in the list are permits for providing transportation
services and room or house renting.

Of all self-employed workers, 66 percent work exclusively in private
businesses, 16 percent are retired people and the rest maintain their job
with state enterprises, reads the MTSS report.

In December, 2011, the vice president of the Parliament’s Commission on
Economic Affairs, Jose Barreiro, told deputies that requests for licenses
to practice any form of private activity is on the rise.

He announced that for 2012 greater stability is expected to guarantee the
supplies needed by the sector; while prospects for the introduction of new
products are under study.