Cubano abre un parque de diversiones en Cuba con dinero que ahorró en Perú

AFP

Por Rigoberto DIAZ

ARTEMISA, Cuba — El cubano Yunieski Jiménez no esperó a que el presidente Raúl Castro dictara una nueva ley de inversiones: tras vivir seis años en Perú, hizo las maletas, volvió a la isla e invirtió sus ahorros en un pequeño parque de diversiones privado, que bautizó "Paraíso Infantil".

"Todo esto se debe al nuevo modelo económico y empresarial que está implementado el país, que nos está dando estas facilidades y ha creado en el sector privado un poco de credibilidad y de confianza para invertir", dijo Jiménez a la AFP en su parque de la ciudad de Artemisa, 50 km al suroeste de La Habana.

Jiménez, de 33 años, había emigrado en 2007 en busca de mejores condiciones de vida. Se radicó en Lima, donde ahorró dinero trabajando como repostero, hasta que decidió volver al enterarse de las "facilidades" para invertir al amparo de las reformas de Raúl Castro.

Con una inversión de unos "10.000 dólares", que espera amortizar "en dos o tres años", trajo de Perú una gigantesca cama elástica, un saltador inflable adornado con personajes de Walt Disney y una decena de carritos eléctricos para su "Paraíso Infantil", que abrió hace un mes.

Este primer parque de diversiones privado de Cuba - minúsculo frente a los que existen en otros países - es motivo de orgullo en Artemisa y opera en un terreno de propiedad pública que antes era ocupado por un ruinoso parque de diversiones estatal.

"Lo demolimos todo y comenzamos de cero", contó Jiménez, quien firmó un contrato por 10 años con el gobierno provincial, por el que paga 200 dólares al mes en alquiler e impuestos.

Dijo que le fue "muy bien" el primer mes, pues con los "ingresos que genera el parque" pagó el alquiler y los salarios de sus seis empleados, porque la acogida del público fue positiva.

"Esto no tiene nada que ver con lo que había aquí. Ahora los niños se divierten más y sin ningún peligro", dijo a la AFP Sunilda Rojas, un ama de casa de 48 años, que compraba boletos para que su sobrina Danielis, de 6 años, montara los multicolores carritos.

"Tenemos otros parques, pero éste es el más lindo", acotó la pequeña.

Como Jiménez, otros cubanos han regresado a la isla y han invertido en inmuebles o negocios privados, aunque no hay datos oficiales. Otros esperan por una anunciada nueva ley de inversiones, que reduciría las restricciones a la entrada de capitales al único país comunista de Occidente.

Se especula que esta ley autorizará las inversiones de los cubanos emigrados, aunque la mayoría de ellos reside en Estados Unidos, que desde 1962 prohíbe hacer negocios con la isla. Desde enero los emigrados pueden visitar libremente la isla, favorecidos por una ley que eliminó los engorrosos permisos de viaje.

Las autoridades de la provincia de Artemisa destacan el parque de Jiménez como un ejemplo de lo que se puede hacer con pocos recursos, pero con iniciativa.

Hace nueve meses se puso en marcha en esta provincia un nuevo sistema de gestión que busca eliminar la burocracia y dio más autonomía a las autoridades locales. Con este fin, se separaron las tareas del gobierno local de las del Partido Comunista (único).

Este nuevo modelo de administración - en vigor también en la vecina provincia de Mayabeque - ha agilizado los permisos de los nuevos negocios privados y será extendido a toda la isla en 2015 si los resultados son positivos en estas dos provincias, que cubren la zona rural que circunda a La Habana.

"Hemos desburocratizado una estructura voluminosa que generaba trabas", dijo el jefe provincial del Partido, Ulises Guilarte, aunque reconoce que persisten obstáculos.

Estos cambios administrativos forman parte de las reformas de Raúl Castro, que han abierto espacio a la iniciativa privada en la economía y a los trabajadores por "cuenta propia", que suman 400.000 en toda Cuba.

En Artemisa, provincia con medio millón de habitantes, ahora hay 21.500 trabajadores por "cuenta propia" que operan restaurantes, peluquerías y otros negocios. El porcentaje de trabajadores privados por habitantes en la provincia (4,3%) supera levemente al promedio nacional (3,6%).

"Veo cosas nuevas. Ojalá que sigamos mejorando y podamos ofrecer mejores servicios. Veo más alegría y tenemos al menos esperanza", dijo María Eugenia Alonso, una exoficinista que abrió una peluquería al lado del "Paraíso Infantil".

‘El Hueco’: Havana market offers Cuba a taste of capitalism in the dark

Global Post/ Nick Miroff

adictamente.blogspot.com

HAVANA, Cuba — Cuba has yet to grasp the invisible hand of Adam Smith, but it is giving some space to an invisible market.

Invisible, at least, during the day.

At night, in an empty lot at the edge of Havana’s Mariano district, an extraordinary gathering of freewheeling commerce has been taking place in recent months.

Every evening after sundown, trucks and tractors from all across the island arrive loaded with fresh produce, queuing up for hours just to secure a parking spot. Throwing open their tailgates, farmers and wholesale vendors shout out their wares and cut deals in cash under the faint glow of cellphone screens and lanterns. Young men lugging tomato crates and sacks of yams swarm between the rows of trucks, dodging pushcarts vendors on makeshift tricycle carts piled high with pineapples and cucumbers.

For now, it’s the closest thing Cuba has to the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and a big development in a country where state bureaucrats have tried to set the price for produce for decades.

“What is this place called?” a visiting reporter asked a young vendor.

He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “We call it ‘El Hueco’ [The Hole].”

It wasn’t hard to see why. The lot becomes a muddy mess in the rain, and, on Wednesday and Sunday nights, it’s so clogged with pushcarts that traffic jams form, pulling buyers deeper into the scrum. There are no bathrooms, no garbage cans and no signs, adding to the impression that communist authorities haven’t quite decided whether to let the market flourish or shut it down.

“This is great because we can sell wholesale here. We don’t have to go out in the streets and try to find customers,” said Yulian Castillo, 28, who was offering banana bunches and 100-pound sacks of taro root for 260 pesos — about $12.

Castillo had to sell two-thirds of this year’s taro crop to the state, which only allows farmers to sell their harvest at market rates once they’ve met their production quotas. But Castillo said the government gave him a decent price this year, and he was free to sell the rest here.

“I like farming, but I like this better,” he said, looking out at the swarming market. “I like coming here, doing business, buying and selling. I never get bored doing this, I’m always on the move,” he said.

Cuba has millions of acres of fertile farmland, but it imports some 70 percent of its food, costing the government $1.5 billion last year. Communist authorities’ perpetual struggle to get local farmers to produce more has forced them to concede a great role for private incentive in agriculture, a shift that is only beginning to extend to the rest of the economy.

And while in towns and cities across the country the government has long permitted retail produce markets that function largely on supply-and-demand market principles, there hasn’t been a central wholesale market where growers from all over the island can sell in bulk quantities.

The market is a boon to farmers and fruit-and-vegetable middlemen, who said it allows the wheels of commerce to turn more efficiently by giving them a direct relationship to retail vendors.

One group of farmers at the market last Wednesday had hauled their lemons all the way across the island from Santiago de Cuba — 500 miles away. There were onion growers from central Cuba’s Sancti Spiritus province in rumbling 1950s-era Ford farm trucks, and mongers from Matanzas selling squash at half the price of those at the city’s retail markets.

Alejandro Manzo had driven 200 miles from his farm in the Villa Clara province, his family’s 1957 Chevy Bel Air stuffed with garlic. 

In the past, the police would have tried to seize his produce on the highway, he said. “I used to have to sell on the black market,” said Manzo. “But now the state sees us farmers differently. It’s letting us get ahead. There’s nothing illegal about this anymore — it’s just supply and demand.”

Manzo said he makes the trip to the capital every 10 days, selling braided ropes of garlic in 100-head strands for $12 — $3 more than he’d get back home.

Since taking over Cuba’s presidency in 2008, Raul Castro has made agriculture reform one of his signature policy moves, distributing some 3 million acres of underperforming state land to private farmers and cooperatives.

But his government still hasn’t taken basic steps to boost production and eliminate the farming bureaucracy that often ends up making Cuban produce more expensive for consumers. Cuban farmers still can’t buy new tractors or trucks, relying instead upon rusting Soviet machinery and 50-year-old American farm equipment.

While Havana residents say there’s more food than ever in their markets, prices have risen faster than Cubans’ meager pensions and government salaries, leaving many to complain that the state should intervene more, not less.

One reason for the market distortion, economists say, is the growing inequality in Havana between Cubans who work in low-paid government posts and those who have access to hard currency sent by relatives abroad or through jobs in tourism and private business. It’s one of several reasons that liberalization measures like the new wholesale market haven’t yet led to lower prices for Cuban consumers.

“The growth of all the new [private] restaurants and snack bars has also kept demand high,” said University of Havana economist Juan Triana.

As the government has loosened restrictions on private farmers’ ability to hire laborers, rural wages have risen, he said. “Before farmers could pay workers 15 or 20 pesos [80 cents] a day. Now it’s 40 pesos [$1.50].”

With more money to be made in farming, anecdotal evidence also suggests Cuba is slowing the trend of rural-to-urban migration that left farmers complaining of too few young people interested in growing crops.

Abel Ramos, 35, had arrived at the market at dusk, but with the line of trucks stretching down the road, he said he didn’t expect to get a spot in the market until after midnight.

The wait would be worth it, he said. “Three or four years ago, I used to grow tomatoes and they would go bad while I waited for the state to buy them,” said Ramos. “Not anymore. Now I can come here.”

“This is a beautiful thing,” he said.

MARK CUBAN: No sales, no company

Max Nisen

Times Photos

Mark Cuban has taken to Reddit to answer questions on everything from the NBA, to his famous confrontation with ESPN talking head Skip Bayless, to his unconventional ideas on tax policy. 

He also gave advice on what made him famous before he became the high profile owner of the Dallas Mavericks and his incredible success as an entrepreneur.  

When asked what people should know before starting a business, he responded: 

"It's not about the idea, it's about how prepared you are. Everyone has ideas, most don't do the work required to get the job done. The 2nd thing you need to know is that sales are the most important aspect of a small business. No sales, no company."

Cuban's advice is all about being pragmatic. People toss around terms like "disruption" and "innovation," then go and make products that nobody wants to buy, or don't actually do the work required to make their idea work as a business.

When it comes to his personal success, he takes a similar tack. When asked about passion versus hard work and how he motivated himself he wrote:

"I daydreamed for motivation. I didn't lie to myself and talk about my passions and how if I was passionate enough about something i could be successful at it.

I was lucky. I grew up knowing that hard work and smart work [has] a greater impact on results than being passionate about something." 

So work hard, and be prepared. 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-cubans-advice-on-success-2012-12#ixzz2GML1JrBp

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Richard Branson: For entrepreneurs, the challenge is clear

By Richard Branson When you can stroll over to a tap whenever you like and help yourself to a glass of clear, cool water, it is hard to believe that one of the biggest business opportunities of the 21st century—and one of the best opportunities for business to give back to society—lies in supplying fresh water.

But global demand for water has grown sixfold over the past century. If this trend continues, our current resources and infrastructure will not be sufficient to supply enough water to meet demand. While the global water industry is diversified and, in terms of committed capital, ranks on par with the oil, gas and electricity industries, it’s attracted little private investment. It’s time for entrepreneurs and business leaders to get involved, because finding creative solutions to these challenges will require not just great political leadership and innovative research, but a transformation of business itself.

The perception of plenty is an illusion: most of the Earth’s fresh water is frozen in the polar icecaps, trapped in the soil or in deep, inaccessible underground lakes; only 1% of all fresh water is available for people to drink and use. For the most part, the water sources we rely on—lakes, rivers, reservoirs and underground—are renewed by rain and snow-fall. Our use should be sustainable in theory, but in some cases, we have already crossed the line and are depleting these sources. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 more than 60% of the world’s population will lack fresh water for drinking and cooking.

If you’re an entrepreneur hoping to make a difference in your community or society, consider this sector. With so many people in need, and different challenges facing every region, there are limitless possibilities for innovation: new and better means of supply, delivery, recycling and treatment. And water touches on every aspect of life, from how we brew our tea to how companies manufacture goods.

Entrants to the market can take the long view when planning their strategy—we can be confident that there will be demand for new, efficient water-delivery products for a long time to come. Current estimates have the sector worth about $450 billion in revenue per year. With China and India growing fast, worldwide water expenditure is likely to rise over the next 25 years to about $1 trillion per year, according to our in-house analysis at Virgin.

One of the challenges is finding a pay model that allows a company to deliver water at minimal cost or free. Fortunately, there is a long history of public-private partnerships in this sector. Consider the model set up by Vestergaard Frandsen, the Swiss manufacturer of LifeStraw, an innovative filter that makes even the filthiest water drinkable. In collaboration with the Kenyan government, VF is providing four million people with free water filters large enough for entire families to use. The company is also replacing the filters free of charge when they wear out—about every three years. Since the LifeStraw recipients would ordinarily boil their water, causing pollution and releasing carbon into the atmosphere, VF is receiving carbon credits, which it then sells to polluters.

At Virgin, we’ve dipped a toe in the water (excuse the pun) through our Green Fund, by backing Seven Seas Water, a desalination business that designs, constructs, installs and operates water plants across the Caribbean and the Americas. Our goal is to produce a low-cost, safe and reliable water supply. And desalination is just one niche of the water industry—but like others, it offers limitless opportunities for innovation, since many current technologies are outdated and inefficient. Not long ago, the energy costs of producing fresh water from salt water outweighed the benefits. While technological advances have changed this, desalination companies are still competing to develop more economical, energy-saving processes.

This drive for efficiency is important in every industry. If our companies are going to continue to expand and thrive, we must also learn to live within our planet’s means. Look at every process in your business and ask: How can we conserve, reuse and recycle? You’ll not only reduce your carbon and water footprints, but you’ll probably save money. And change on this scale requires all of us to get involved.

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Los tycoones kubiches y el Zhuanda Fangxiao

El ex magnate petrolero Jodorkovski, culpable de robo y lavado de dinero

Como bien apunta Ichikawa en Cuban Tycoon  que el asunto de El ex magnate ruso Jodorkovski, declarado culpable de malversación 

"... conduce al tema de los “millonarios kubishes” que pueden resultar de la práctica económica exitosa en el ambiente de las declaradas “reformas”. La posición del gobierno cubano es clara: no permitir excesiva concentración de riqueza. Por el momento, sacar adelante un negocio relacionado con Cuba -dentro o fuera de su geografía- lleva cuando menos una abstención de considerar su política. Apoyarla, si bien no es obligatorio, puede ser recomendable".

Sin embargo, la contencion a la concentracion de la riqueza en el marco de las reformas cubanas, actua para los "ajenos" al enclave del poder, no asi a los que la han concentrado durante mas de medio siglo. 

La aplicacion de El Zhuanda Fangxiao cubano: mantener lo grande, deshacerse de lo pequeño/ esta en el centro de las reformas cubanas y es sustantivo de la garantia de que la concentracion de la riqueza ocurra solo en aquellos nichos de poder autorizados para ello. 

En la foto Julio Lobo el ultimo Tycoon cubano.

El espiritu emprendedor visto por la Casa Blanca

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