Havana reeks of decay. The good news is that 80 percent to 90 percent of Cubans own their own apartment or house. The bad news is that they can't rent or sell, at least not officially. Yet, from an economic standpoint, things are beginning to look up. The economy has been on the up-tick since 1994, with a latest gain of 5.6 percent in 2000.
Government policy is firmly rooted in a shift in production from goods to services.
That means less reliance on the traditional exports of raw sugar, nickel, tobacco and seafood, and heavy concentration on tourism and emerging industries such as biotechnology. Of the 140 countries doing business, Spain, Canada, Italy and France claim the lion's share. And most of those dollars come from Europeans and Canadians. Bottom line, the U.S. embargo combined with the disintegration of the Soviet Union has forced Cuba to very gradually move from a strict, centrally planned economy to a more market-driven one. As a result, the U.S. dollar has been legalized, with 50 percent to 70 percent of the economy projected to be dollar-driven within the next five years.