Development and prospects of capital goods production in revolutionary Cuba

Capital goods have played an important role in the industrialization process of the leading industrial nations of today and the absence of a capital goods sector is often considered a serious handicap to industrialization in the developing countries. Cuba had practically no capital goods industries prior to the Revolution in 1959 and in the 1960s much hope was vested in the rapid creation of such a sector. As this study shows, however, this was a much more complicated process than envisaged. After much frustration in the 1960s, Cuba managed in the 1970s to create the base for a dynamic capital goods industry, but only subsequent to a trial and error process of “learning by doing,” especially as concerned spare parts. Today Cuba has a relatively important capital goods industry, considering the limited size of the country, and is particularly strong in the production of agricultural machinery. The prospects for the future are quite good in light of the existence of a highly skilled and adequately trained labor force.