Cuba's parliament, the National Assembly, met Sunday to discuss the country's current economic situation and possible reforms, in the presence of President Raul Castro, dpa reported.
Although he has made eight public appearances in the past two weeks, former leader Fidel Castro, 83, was not at the meeting of 600 deputies.
The assembly discussed progress on a variety of current economic woes, from poor productivity, bureaucracy to corruption, with some of the blame put on the global economic recession and natural weather disasters.
Sugar and coffee production, two of the mainstays of Cuba's export economy, are both dramatically down.
When Raul Castro took over rule of the Caribbean communist island from his brother two years ago, a raft of reforms and initiatives were promised, but a proposed experiment to allow hairdressers and taxi drivers to earn money privately appears to have been culled, after Vice-President José Ramón Machado said he would not allow such "improvisations."