Above: Havana

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Cuba’s National Assembly has approved a new “Law on Foreign Investment,” the government said Saturday.

In a statement, the government said it would be an “essential instrument in the interest of Cuba to consolidate its economic model and build a prosperous and sustainable socialism.”

The law included a mix of mostly tax incentives, and it could be the latest move in what has been a gradual shift toward liberalizing the country’s economy, although it has come at a decidedly slow pace.

That nominal push kicked off last year, when Raul Castro, announcing plans to retire from politics in 2018, said Cuba needed to update its economic model to achieve a “sustainable and prosperous socialist society, a society less egalitarian, but more fair.”

The vote came at a special meeting convened by Cuba’s state council to discuss regulation; the meeting focused on “the need to attract foreign capital to the sectors of interest to the country,” according to a statement.

Marino Murillo Jorge, vice president of Cuba’s Council of Ministers, said that well-done foreign investment “does not mean giving away the country.”

He said the new model would focus on ensuring not just economic growth but development, with a target growth rate of between five and seven percent.