As a growing number of tourists visit Cuba, the government has announced plans to shift all of the country’s 9,000 state-owned restaurants and cafes into private businesses. CCTV correspondent Michael Voss reports on this latest move in President Raul Castro’s economic reform program.

Two dozen restaurants transferred to cooperatives this year as the state struggled to compete for tourists against the new private sector. For almost 50 years, every restaurant in the country was owned by the state, right down to food stalls and hole-in-the-wall cafes.

Prices may be cheap, but quality is often poor. A lot of food and drink also disappeared through the back door, with employees selling it on the black market to supplement their low state wages. The government has now decided to get out of the food service business altogether. Over the next few years, it will gradually hand over all the remaining state restaurants and cafes to private owners or cooperatives.

Some people are worried that prices may rise, but most see it as a positive move.

Cuba is also making drastic changes to its currency. For more on this, CCTV America was joined by Philip Brenner, a professor of international relations at American University.