The grandson of former president Raul Castro stated in an interview that Cuba must work to advance its economy, and observers on Friday referred to the island's new free-market reforms as the most comprehensive economic revamp of the communist economy since the Cuban revolution.
The 176 steps are intended to further decentralize Cuba's state-run economy, which has been left reeling by a more stringent blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump.
The government controls most aspects of the island's economy, including what is produced, who produces it, the prices at which commodities are sold, and how the nation's resources are distributed.
More room for private companies, unrestricted imports and exports, free employee hiring, authorization for private banks, and foreign investment by Cubans are all included in the proposal.

"The state monopoly on foreign trade and the centralization of productive forces, which for decades were listed as pillars of the revolutionary economy, have been dismantled," stated Luis Carlos Battista, a Cuban-American political scientist and lawyer pursuing a doctorate at the University of Salamanca.
In the past, bureaucratic obstacles have prevented Cuban leaders like former president Raul Castro, who still has considerable influence on the island, from advancing more modest economic reforms.
Cuban officials warned that the reform's implementation might be slow and pointed out that if the US does not lift the island's financial and energy embargo, the measures won't be feasible.The US has enforced a severe energy and financial blockade on Cuba since January, virtually cutting off the country from petroleum, its primary energy source, and exacerbating the situation that had been worsening over the previous five years. Access to health care, transportation, and education has been hampered by blackouts that have lasted up to 20 hours a day.
Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that they are continuing to apply maximum pressure to alter the island's political and economic structure, which has persisted for 60 years in spite of US pressure.The use of military force has not been ruled out.
Cuba poses no threat to the United States, according to Castro's grandson.
The revolutionary leader's grandson, Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, reaffirmed that Cuba "doesn't even slightly represent a threat" to the United States in an interview that was published on Friday in The National in the United Arab Emirates.
In order to achieve economic progress, our nation must unavoidably diversify its economy, business practices, and investment strategies," he stated.
According to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the suggested actions were founded on an examination of the Vietnamese and Chinese models, market-oriented communist nations.US sanctions against Cuba are likely to be a major obstacle, according to Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute in Washington.He stated, "These new measures, along with others that are probably on the table, will only have a true effect if they are combined with the gradual lifting of US prohibitions and sanctions more broadly."
Schlenker and other analysts stated that many of the proposed reforms will not be applicable unless the sanctions are repealed, particularly because of the restrictions and prohibitions placed on prospective investors who are penalized in the US financial system if they conduct business with Cuba.

Significant reforms could also be hampered by a variety of other issues, such as mistrust among possible investors and "slow and inefficient" bureaucracy, according to Cuban-American expert Battista.
According to Paolo Spadoni, an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Augusta University in Georgia, the Cuban administration has a limited amount of time to get results despite these challenges.Cuban officials must act swiftly to enact reform and create noticeable results if they are to survive this historic crisis and the pressure from the United States, according to Spadoni.