State institutions in Las Tunas will advise private or public entrepreneurs who plan to establish micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), in line with the regulatory package that gives them that possibility and which came into force this September 20.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Eduardo Walter Cueli, provincial director of Economy and Planning, told the press that through the provincial group created for that purpose or its similar ones in the municipalities, those interested can seek the information they need. "The legal norms, he said, are within everyone's reach and each of their decrees laws, decrees and resolutions explain and regulate the steps to be followed by anyone interested in joining these new economic actors, whether private or state-owned." He said that the Ministry of Economy and Planning will carry out this procedure gradually and through calls for bids.

The legislation in force opens the door to the creation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), a process that is taking place centrally through the website of the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP, by its acronym in Spanish) accessible through the link https://pae.mep.gob.cu.

From there, the entrepreneurs will be able to carry out the pertinent procedures, in an agile and simplified way. On the first day alone, the MEP received 75 applications from all over the country, including some from this eastern Cuban province. Besides, a channel on the Telegram social network named Economic Actors is active, as well as the e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For its part, the Educational channel broadcasts several conferences on the subject.

In this initial group, said Walter Cueli, are included MSMEs that propose a circular economy or recycling, all those linked to import substitution, food production, local development projects, and high technology, among the latter the so-called technology parks.

The head of Economy and Planning in Las Tunas commented that in the case of state entities interested in establishing any of these new modalities, it is the provincial group that dictates which ones can do so. "There is already a survey carried out in the territory at the level of enterprises and basic business units," he said.

In Las Tunas, a total of 124 self-employed workers have more than three people employed, but as established by the new decrees, not all of them are now obliged to create small or medium-sized enterprises. Those who decide to keep more than three employees will have up to one year to complete the process; otherwise, they will have to reduce that number before September 20, 2022, explained Eduardo Walter Cueli.

Since last Monday, other changes for self-employment are also in force; the most relevant: its redefinition as work performed autonomously, although the holder may hire up to three employees. At the same time, it includes some transformations in the tax system for the non-state sector of the Cuban economy.

"We want to transmit total tranquility; the norm establishes up to one year to carry out the process. We have designed a system in which all self-employed workers will be registered ex officio, therefore, on the 20th, when the regulations will come into force, there is no need to take any additional action", clarified the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, at the end of August. She also stressed that all the permits currently held by self-employed workers, such as a health license, transport operation, service contracts with companies such as Etecsa or Correos de Cuba, remain in force.

The Minister of Labor and Social Security insisted that those who want to register as new self-employed workers or if they wish to expand their current work project will have "all the flexibilities that have been provided because there is no established scope, but the scope is determined by the worker."

This same week, the governor of Las Tunas, Jaime Chiang Vega told the directorate here of the aforementioned ministry to speed up the organizational adjustments so that there is fluidity in the single window procedures that this process of re-registration of the projects presented by self-employed workers provides for.