Cuba is turning over hundreds of state-run barber shops and beauty salons to employees in what may be the start of a long-expected privatisation drive, BBC online reports Tuesday.
All barbers and hairdressers in shops with three seats or fewer will be allowed to rent the space and pay taxes instead of getting a monthly wage. The retail sector has long been derided for poor service and rampant theft.
The Caribian country’s former President, Fidel Castro, nationalised all small businesses in 1968. Now his younger brother and successor Raul Castro is trying to modernise the system without jumping to full-scale capitalism and this is his first attempt to deal with shops in the retail and service sector.
