CUBA'S NEW OFFER TO CARICOM
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
July 18, 2004
THE INAUGURAL meeting of Caribbean Community-Cuba Foreign Ministers that took place in Havana on Thursday, July 15, highlighted further evidence of a commitment by the Cuban Government to provide practical forms of assistance to CARICOM.
While no official joint statement was issued by yesterday, as expected, Cuba is known to have taken the opportunity to announce its plan to provide a systematic CARICOM-wide training programme for doctors and nurses to help in battling the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is taking a heavy toll on a number of Community states, including Guyana.
Details of the Cuban Government training programme are yet to be revealed. But President Fidel Castro's Government had earlier signalled its preparedness to provide a multi-faceted training centre in a CARICOM member state - to be identified by the Community partners - from where the expansive training programme would be coordinated.
News of Havana's latest initiative to provide this form of assistance to CARICOM, where hundreds of Cuban doctors and nurses have been working over the years, coincided with the disclosure on Friday that the United States Government has given approval for the American biotechnology company, 'CancerVax', and the Cuban authorities to develop three experimental cancer drugs created by Cuba.
This rare nod for US-Cuba cooperation means that CancerVax is now licensed to develop the three drugs, created under Cuba's estimated US$1 billion biotechnology programme, in its laboratories for sale and to share the profits with Cuba.
Surviving some 41 years of an unprecedented US-imposed trade, economic and financial embargo, Cuba has, nevertheless, acquired the reputation as the Third World state with perhaps the most advanced programme in biotechnology and an enviable record of success in the fields of health and education.
'BBC News' in reporting yesterday on the Cuban Government's marketing of its medical expertise, said: "Cuba may be judged poor by material living standards, but its medical sector is a strong demonstration of its wealth in human resources.
Joint ventures with China, India and Russia have been established to set up vaccine plants in their countries based on a transfer of Cuban technology..."
As a country with the lowest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world, Cuba's offer to help CARICOM states to fight the killer disease is a most welcome gesture of its deepening friendship with the 15-member Community.
Last week's Foreign Ministers meeting in Havana occurred in accordance with an agreement reached at the 2002 CARICOM-Cuba Summit to mark 30 years of diplomatic relations and ongoing cooperation.