HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cubans living abroad will now be allowed to invest and own businesses on the island, a senior economic official said Monday, unveiling a key reform as the economy struggles under intense US pressure.

“Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies,” and “also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants,” Oscar Perez-Oliva, who is foreign trade minister and also deputy prime minister, told NBC News.

The broadcaster said Perez-Oliva was scheduled to announce the reform to the nation Monday night.

Miami in particular has a large community of Cubans who fled after the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 or in subsequent years as hardship dug in on the communist island. These Miami Cubans tend to be virulently anti-regime.

US President Donald Trump’s Administration has imposed an oil blockade on the Cuban Government as Washington presses for regime change, making life harder for people already enduring food shortages and frequent blackouts as Cuba struggles under US trade sanctions imposed since 1962.

“This extends beyond the commercial sphere,” added the minister. “It also applies to investments — not only small investments, but also large investments, particularly in infrastructure.”

He said the goal of this reform is to boost key sectors of the economy, such as tourism and mining, and rebuild Cuba’s ageing and decrepit electrical grid, which breaks down often and sometimes causes nationwide blackouts.

Trump has said Cuba will be “next” on his agenda after the Iran war and the US overthrow of Cuba’s top ally, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, in January.

Cuba relied on Venezuela for oil, but Trump, who says he effectively runs Caracas, has cut off the supply.

The oil embargo has brought Cuba’s already troubled economy to the brink of collapse.

Trump told reporters Sunday that Cuba hopes to make a deal that could happen “pretty quickly”.

“Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon either make a deal or do whatever we have to do,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“So, we’re talking to Cuba but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba…So I think something will happen with Cuba pretty quickly,” he said.

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed Friday that his Government had held talks over “bilateral differences” with the United States, though he did not provide details about the nature of the discussions.