HAVANA, Sept 19 (Reuter) - An economic policy document prepared for a congress of Cuba's ruling Communist Party next month emphasizes the need for efficiency and reaffirms the essentially socialist character of the nation's future economic strategy, the party newspaper Granma said on Friday.
The draft document ``ratifies the socialist essence of our economic policy despite the introduction of some market elements and certain capitalist practices,'' Granma said in article looking ahead to the upcoming Fifth Party Congress scheduled for Oct. 8-10.
It went on: ``Efficiency, backed by reasoned argument on how to achieve it, is the central objective of the nation's economic policy.'' But Granma gave no details of specific policy recommendations made in the draft document.
The mention of ``market elements and capitalist practices'' was a reference to limited and cautious liberalizing and decentralizing reforms introduced by Cuba's communist government since the last party congress in 1991.
The reforms introduced over the last six years were taken in direct response to a severe economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the Caribbean island's trade and aid ties with the former Soviet Union. This recession was further complicated by a tightened U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.
Granma said the policy document, expected to be presented by Vice-President Carlos Lage, would review how the government had managed to halt the recession and restart economic growth.
Cuban officials say the economy has shown encouraging signs of recovery in the last two years after Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plunged by nearly 35 percent between 1989 and 1993.
Granma said the document would evaluate the reform measures adopted and their consequences, which it said had been ``expected, but not always favorable.'' This was an apparent echo of frequent public comments by Cuban President Fidel Castro and other leaders about how capitalist-style reforms had had some negative ideological impact on Cuba's socialist system.
A national political policy document published ahead of the October party congress makes clear that the Cuban leadership intends to maintain the island's one-party communist system.
Granma said the economic report would recognize poor results in some sectors and clear advances in others. It would also make ``realistic'' targets and forecasts for the next five-year period leading up to the next party congress.
The article said the report would outline strategies to confront what it called Cuba's ``complex external financial situation,'' a reference to the tight financial squeeze imposed on the economy by Cuba's scarce hard currency resources and its reliance on mostly short-term, high-interest credits.
``It will be our own efforts that will define the outcome of this battle,'' Granma said.
At no point did the Granma article specifically mention foreign investment, which most foreign analysts agree has had a key role in boosting the island's hard currency exports, for example in nickel, and in developing tourism, currently the biggest hard currency earner.
23:30 09-19-97