Havana, Cuba.- The Cuban government favors easing and ordering self-employment, according to the deputy minister for Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feito.

In statements to reporters, the official noted that in order to boost the development of self-employment, the Council of Ministers approved a group of measures on that policy, which is established in the conceptualization of the Cuban model.

The norms, published today in the extraordinary Official Gazette number 35, on its website, improve the regulations for this kind of work and its control system, she said.

The measures, according to Feito, also meet the demands made by self-employed workers and establish the regulations to strengthen control at the municipal, provincial and national levels.

The official added that with the new reordering, all 201 self-employment modalities were regrouped into 123, thus reducing bureaucratic procedures and uniting several related activities in one license.

All this, without increasing the taxes for self-employed workers or eliminating any of the activities previously approved.

On the contrary, in order to respond to some requests within the sector, new modalities were created like bars and recreation management, baker and vehicle rental, among others.

As part of the most significant new elements, Feito mentioned the possibility for landlords to rent houses to legal entities and to provide food after being authorized by sanitary authorities.

At present, there are 591,456 self-employed workers in Cuba, who account for 13 percent of the country’s labor force, the deputy minister noted.