NBC News quotes former US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez from an Atlantic Council report launch on the need to support Cuban small businesses:
“One of the things I like the about President Obama’s reforms, his approach, is the idea of supporting Cuban entrepreneurs,” Carlos Gutierrez, who served as Department of Commerce secretary and is Cuban American, said Tuesday.
“If I had my choice of what business would I open up in Cuba – not that I’m planning to invest in Cuba – how about a little home repair store? Or a shop where businesses can buy tools? A wholesaler system where you have a series of warehouses around the country where if you own a restaurant that’s where you order you napkins … That’s the basic kind of infrastructure that we need,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez was a keynote speaker at a forum on Cuba’s “economic reintegration” held by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, which is supportive of the decision to open relations with Cuba.