Cuba's Catholic Church says it has launched classes aimed at training
aspiring entrepreneurs to open and run small businesses permitted by the
country's new program of economic reforms.
The Havana Archdiocese said in its official magazine that it is running
three-month workshops and a two-year degree program taught by clergy
members on the basics of private business, including sourcing of
materials, accounting and tax regulations.
The Catholic Church has been barred from participation in the
Communist-run nation's system of universal free education, despite
requests that it be allowed to run schools as it does in other
countries.
In 2010, President Raul Castro began opening Cuba's economy to limited
forms of private enterprise, including sections of the real-estate and
automobile markets.