Cuban officials say their economy, staggered by the collapse of the Soviet bloc, is undergoing historic changes with the help of foreign capitalists - even while leaders cling to one-party socialism.
After three decades of socialist barter and subsidies, Cuba is plunging headlong into capitalist markets abroad while trying to maintain strict socialism at home.The agreements that sustained Cuba's economy for 30 years "are not important" anymore, said Alfonso Casanova, director of the Economic Studies Center at the University of Havana.
Instead, Cuba is looking to trade on the free market.
For the first time in at least a century, sugar should account for less than half of Cuba's foreign earnings this year - a forced diversification caused by the loss of subsidized sugar sales to Eastern Europe.
Casanova estimated that sugar, which accounted for 80 percent of foreign earnings a few years ago, will be less than 40 percent this year and bring in about $1 billion.
The harvest has been reduced by a sharp drop in supplies of fuel, fertilizer and machinery, he said.
Heavy recent investment in nickel and tourism should lead to total earnings of $500 million this year, he said. By 1995, the government hopes to earn almost $1 billion from each.
The attention on sugar also has been diverted by Cuba's desperate attempts to increase food production for a population of 11 million suffering severe shortages of meat, milk and about everything else.
More than half of Cuba's food came from the socialist bloc in trade for sugar prior to 1989, according to Foreign Trade Minister Ricardo Cabrisas.
Cuba's hunger for foreign investment was dramatized Thursday when President Fidel Castro and other top officials met a conference of 125 foreign businessmen, mostly from the United States, to tout joint venture investments.
The Cubans laid on a buffet that included enough meat and seafood to fill the rations of a small Cuban town for a week. Delegates also enjoyed unprecedented access to top officials.