China in Cuba

There’s been some debate about whether there really is a Chinese development model other countries can pursue. Raul Castro’s certainly sticking to the playbook:

Communist Cuba has begun offering private farmers equipment and other resources on credit along with more land, as President Raul Castro seeks to reform agriculture by loosening the state's grip.

Just days after a government decree authorizing land grants to farmers, they are being called to meetings and asked what machinery and other inputs they need to make the best use of it.

We’ve had increased access to consumer goods (ie, controlled import liberalization), the introduction of differential wage structures and now we have rural decollectivisation and provision of agricultural credit through inward investment. This part’s being kept amongst friends, though:

"They told us to present our requests immediately for what we need and that Venezuela, Iran and other countries had given credit to cover the resources," the treasurer of a private cooperative said in a telephone interview after attending a meeting this week in central Cuba.

Iran recently agreed to increase trade credits to Cuba from 200 million euros to 500 million euros and Venezuela already finances dozens of manufacturing and agricultural projects.

Following the Chinese model, the next step is to invite overseas Cubans back home with their money: maybe some of the old latifundistas will be asked back to resume the whip hand in joint ventures with the government. That would certainly be interesting.

Comments

[Nick L]

Isn't Vietnam the furthest down the road to emulating the Chinese model of development?

[jamie]

I think the Vietnamese started at around the same time as China, maybe a little later: 1985 or something. One difference is that as a smaller nation they're much more dependent on investment from particular countries, particularly Japan and South Korea as I recall. But then they did it partly as a defensive measure against China. Cuba's thing's interesting because of the exact, almost canonical way it's adopted the early measures in China's economic reform process, as though China was a shadow IMF. But that means we really are due a rapprochement with el exilio.