August 30, 2010 |

Cuba embraces two surprising free-market reforms

AP
By Will Weissert
August 27, 2010

Cuba has issued a pair of surprising free-market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years — potentially touching off a golf-course building boom — and loosening state controls on commerce to let islanders grow and sell their own fruit and vegetables.

The moves, published into law in the Official Gazette on Thursday and Friday and effective immediately, are significant steps as President Raul Castro promises to scale back the communist state’s control of the economy while attempting to generate new revenue for a government short on cash.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38884483/ns/travel/