HAVANA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Raul Castro was re-elected to a second five-year term as president of Cuba's State Council last Sunday, to continue his 300-point program to modernize the island country's socialist system.
After his re-election, Castro said it would be his last term, in line with one of his reforms: a two consecutive term limit.
The reform still requires constitutional amendment, but Castro, 81, affirmed he would step aside when his presidency ends in 2018, if not before.
The announcement marks the beginning of the end of a revolutionary period led by the Castros, first by the 86-year-old Fidel Castro, who served Cuba as president for 48 years, spanning 10 U.S presidential administrations.
Raul Castro, who took on his brother's responsibilities in 2006 when Fidel Castro fell ill, was officially elected president in 2008, and has been introducing reforms to the country since.
Though the country's one-party political system has not been changed, its economic landscape has been improving thanks to Castro's reforms.
Relaxing the so-called "excess of prohibitions", the government now allows Cubans to use mobile phones, and buy and sell their houses and cars, and encourages the budding private sector, which employs almost 400,000 people, to revive the inefficient economy.
Farmers are allowed to cultivate idle state land to boost agricultural production and achieve food self-sufficiency. The country imports about 80 percent of its food.
The most popular reform is a new migration law that relaxes travel restrictions and miscellaneous application procedures.
Castro also launched a crusade against corruption, including setting up a General Comptroller in 2009 to replace the other state auditing agencies.
He said last Sunday the most important reforms were still to come, without giving further details.
On the same day, Miguel Diaz Canel, 52, was elected as first vice president, a potential sign that a younger generation has begun to shoulder the responsibility for transforming the island country, as the veteran revolutionaries are well into their 80s.
Currently, the nation's biggest challenges are abolishing a double currency system, raising basic wages, and allowing foreign investment in the Caribbean island's creaking infrastructure.
Cuba also has to handle its sizeable public debt, energy dependence, aging society and brain drain.
So, Cubans wonder whether the younger generation of political leaders, who were born after the 1959 Revolution, will be able to carve their own path following the end of the Castro era.
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