Cuba's Communist National Assembly has unanimously approved a law to make it easier for foreign investors to do business in Cuba.  The reforms are seen as necessary to protect and grow the island’s struggling economy, still laboring under an economic embargo by its north neighbor, the United States.

The vote was carried on a special session of the assembly broadcast on State TV, with President Raul Castro leading officials towards modernizing the economy.

The new regulations:  Cut taxes on profits from 30 to 15 percent, although the tax on nickel and fossil fuel investment could be as high as 50 percent;  Speed up the process of approving foreign investment;  Put new legal protections in place to reinforce investors' confidence in the Cuban government.

The reforms replace a 1995 law that was supposed to attract more foreign investment, which were scrapped because Cuba’s economic growth in 2013 was 2.7 percent – a figure relatively in line with what happened in Australia, the US, and the EU – but far short of the 7 percent growth that President Raul Castro had expected.