Private transporters to be licensed again

The government will soon issue licenses for the private transportation of passengers, the Spanish daily ABC reported Tuesday, citing the EFE news agency. Transport Minister Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz said on Radio Rebelde that "it has been decided -- and will be implemented in the next several days -- to authorize operators' licenses for private transportation," in effect, private jitneys. Those vehicles will not compete with public buses because they will operate in rural areas and some suburban areas "not served by the vehicles now arriving" in Cuba from China and Belarus. The licenses "will be approved on an individual basis," and the driver "will be given fuel, his fare will be set, and his route and timetable will be set. It's as if it were a public bus for the rural zone," Sierra said. The measure is seen as another opening for private enterprise in some sectors of the economy. Private carriers (known as boteros, or boatsmen) were licensed in the 1990s but the licenses were discontinued in 1999 without explanation. For more, in The Herald, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.