There are 124 such cooperatives in the sectors of construction, transportation, waste collection and produce markets, which begin functioning from Monday, the official daily Granma reported.

　　"Through this new measure, we are hoping to manage as (private) cooperatives those state-run economic activities that have not been efficient," Grisel Trista Arbesu, head of the Business Improvement Group of the government Permanent Commission for Development and Implementation, was quoted as saying.

　　"The measure also allows the state to gradually extricate itself from activities that are not of vital importance to economic development," Trista said.

　　Ruben Toledo Diaz, also with the Development Commission, said such private-sector cooperatives are playing an increasingly more important role in the nation's economy, "though socialist state enterprises will continue to play the leading role."

　　"The cooperatives are not the result of a process of privatization, but will manage state property, which ultimately belongs to all the people," Toledo said.

　　The Cuban government hopes the new cooperatives will boost productivity and allow the state to cut public spending by reducing the number of people on the government payroll and adjusting social spending, without eliminating it.

　　Cuba's first private-sector cooperatives were created in the field of agriculture, where growers were free to sell their surplus on the open market. There are currently some 5,800 agricultural cooperatives in Cuba.