Cuba to reform two ministries, expand employee co-ops

Cuba to reform two ministries, expand employee co-ops
Reuters
2:28 a.m. CDT, April 5, 2012
* Agriculture Ministry said to be in "unfavorable" state
* More employee cooperatives to run state businesses
* Castro says long reform road ahead
By Nelson Acosta

HAVANA, April 5 (Reuters) - The Cuban government plans to
shake up two underperforming ministries and broaden a project to
turn state businesses over to employee cooperatives, state
television reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Informatics
and Communications needed reorganizing, it said on Wednesday
night.

The changes, said to have been discussed at the Council of
Ministers on Saturday, are part of wide-ranging reforms
initiated by President Raul Castro.

He is encouraging the growth of Cuba's private sector and
reducing the size and role of government in the Caribbean
island's cash-strapped Soviet-style system.

Cuban television said Marino Murillo, the architect of the
reforms, described the Ministry of Agriculture as having been in

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