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Cuba opens the door to private businesses

Cuba has announced a sweeping set of liberalisations to its economy

Until now, only 127 professions in Cuba were allowed to have an element of private participation to them. The rest were controlled and administered by the government; that figure will be raised to more than 2,000 professions; we hear more from Will Grant, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Cuba Correspondent. Sales of classic cars have not crashed despite the pandemic, with people buying Morris Minors, Ford Capris and even Trabants and Ladas. We speak to John Mayhead, editor of Haggerty's Price Guide and Kiril Vitanov, a Bulgarian man living in Cambridge who drives a Russian Volga M21, the same kind of car owned by astronaut Yuri Gagarin. Spanish farmers have condemned the central government's move to declare the Iberian wolf a protected species and farmers are extremely angry, many claiming that romantic city-dweller notions of wolves in the moonlight are at odds with the reality farmers face of potential threats to livestock; we speak to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Madrid correspondent, Guy Hedgecoe. Plus, we hear from Mariana Mazzucato, a high-profile economist noted for her advocacy for more active state involvement in the economy. She's calling on governments to solve some of our most pressing problems by taking inspiration from the mission-driven methods of the Apollo project. (Picture of Cuban flag over Plaza de la Cathedral at sunset, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, via Getty Images).

Available now

23 minutes

Broadcast

  • Mon 8 Feb 2021 01:06GMT