Cuban President Raul Castro has dampened hopes of rapid economic improvement through reforms, dpa reported.
Cuba is to continue "updating its economic model," Castro said Sunday at the close of the National Assembly's winter session, but he said there could be no improvization or hurry.
"It is right to move in the direction of the future but with a sure and safe step because we simply don't have the right to make a mistake," Castro said.
Raul Castro, 78, took over the provisional leadership of the country in the summer of 2006 from his 83-year-old brother, Fidel Castro, who was seriously ill at the time.
When Raul Castro was officially appointed head of state and government in February 2008, he gave Cubans hope of small-scale economic reforms after nearly half a century of a communist planned economy.
The Cuban government had blamed a delay in the reforms on the world economic crisis and a series of hurricanes that did extensive damage in Cuba in the summer of 2008.
Also on Sunday, the National Assembly appointed two new vice presidents to the Council of State, which Raul Castro chairs.
Veteran revolutionary Ramiro Valdes, 77, was a comrade of the Castro brothers during their fight against the Batista dictatorship in the 1950s. Gladys Bejerano, 62, has since last summer been the head of an anti-corruption body tasked with combatting graft in state institutions.
The two new appointees are to replace Juan Almeida, who died in September, and the reformist Carlos Lage, who has fallen into disfavour.
Raul Castro dampens hopes of economic reform in Cuba
