>corruption or drug traffic, in the midst of an almost 40-year
>economic blockade.
>
>Zapata said that the organizing committee is structured continentally
>with representatives in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador,
>Guatemala, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Mexico and other countries.
>
>At present, 200 non governmental organizations and 23 countries
>support this honor, awarded for the first time in 1989 to South
>African leader Nelson Mandela when he was still in jail, and to other
>figures such as the Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta
>Menchu.
>
>The announcement was made at Latin American Journalists Federation
>(FELAP) headquarters, whose president Luis Suarez said that it was
>completely just.
>
>FELAP supports it considering it is a determination corresponding to
>the great figure of Commander Fidel Castro, Suarez said in a short
>interview with Prensa Latina. RRC/CCS
>
> TOURISM HAS A PLACE IN SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
>
>HAVANA, Apr 14 (PL) Cooperation among South nations, one of the
>main mandates of the developing world, is evident in tourism,
>affirmed Cuban Tourism minister, Ibrahim Ferradaz.
>
>In press statements to South Summit accredited press, the official
>indicated bilateral contacts on tourism has made a mark in the
>meeting, and proposals could include personal training and experience
>exchanges.
>
>Ferraraz stated there are also sectors for some products to be traded
>as multipurpose.
>
>Explaining Cuba's economic behavior in this area, the minister
>reported its dynamic increase, with annual growth rate of 20 per cent
>between 1990-1999.
>
>The present Cuban tourism infrastructure has 34,000 habitations, and
>another 50,000 rooms should be incorporated midterm, with a view to
>receiving some five to seven million visitors in 2010.
>
>Added to this is a reactivation of the most important Cuban
>economic branches, which at the end of 1999 covered 54 per cent of
>the sector's needs, without protectionist measures to benefit
>national enterprises to the detriment of foreign competition.
>
>This prognosis includes eventual liberalization of trips by US
>citizens to Cuba, a process subject to Washington prohibitions
>because of the US blockade on Cuba.
>
>However, various statistics revealed 70,000 US people visited Cuba
>last year, to which can be added 100,000 Cuban people living in that
>country.
>
>Foreign capital represents, at present, about 20 per cent of
>industry investment, through trade agreements and tourist resource
>management.
>
>Ferradaz anticipated joint associations to create new tourism
>projects in Varadero, Cayo Coco, Santa Lucia, Cayo Largo del Sur and
>Havana will be finalized in the coming months with Cubanacan and Gran
>Caribe Cuban groups.
>
>The minister said there are regulations for private room rental
>to foreigners and calculated there are approximately 1,300 homes in
>the capital for this activity, and another 800 in Santiago de Cuba.
>
>Two million tourists are expected this year, which will consolidate a
>sector that achieved 53 per cent in hard currency income and figures
>as the engine of the national economy. IFF/CCS
>
> SOUTH SUMMIT ANNOUNCES NEW PROGRAM TO REDUCE POVERTY
>
>HAVANA, Apr 14 (PL) Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations Development
>Program (UNDP) director, announced a program to reduce the number of
>poor persons by the year 2015.
>
>New projects, collateral to Havana Summit activities, will be at
>the disposal of developing countries to eliminate poverty caused
>by globalization the top executive commented yesterday.
>
>In meetings with his counterparts, Malloch stated UNDP would firmly
>support that goal, and mentioned six fields for concrete action.
>
>He advocated strengthening management, and functioning of national
>and local legislation, for which UNDP would serve as advisor.
>
>UNDP administrator insisted official strategy toward that aim should
>mean growing economically at a 4 per cent annual rate per capita, to
>reduce poverty 50 per cent by the year 2015.
>
>Malloch Brown suggested joint work between UNDP and developing
>nations to help reduce globalization effects, and urged
>industrialized countries to guarantee poor countries' products
>entering the market without tariffs or payments.
>
>Other proposals to reduce poverty are the access to new
>information technologies, supported by public and private
>associations, a literacy campaign paid for by the increase in
>national income, better opportunities for women and human rights.
>
>The G-77 Summit will promote South-South cooperation, emphasized
>Malloch Brown, who promised to place the topic as center of all world
>UNDP programs through a Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among
>Developing Countries (TCDC). DIG/CCS
>
> UNDP SUPPORTS G-77 OUTLOOK ON UN REFORM
>
>HAVANA, Apr 14 (PL) United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
>supports G-77 perspective on UN reform, UNDP Director Mark Malloch
>asserted here.
>
>When interviewed by Prensa Latina about the Millennium Summit - "The
>United Nations of the 21st Century" to be held in September, the UNDP
>manager said the time has come to "change and adapt".
>
>Malloch spoke in favor of substantial changes to influence economic
>growth in underdeveloped countries, and a management beneficial for
>the poorest sector. "Our radicalism will be probably far-reaching,
>because it reflects developing countries' priorities", the world's
>great majority he expressed.
>
>He mentioned economic growth, management, and technology and
>information transfer as UNDP priorities from 2000 onward. A campaign
>to stimulate funds for development, mobilize resources for specific
>projects and create alliances with the world private sector
>seeking greater contribution, will be made by the UNDP Malloch
>foretold.
>
>The British UNDP representative responded to environmental
>protection demands from the first Heads of State and Government
>Summit that opened here Tuesday.
>"We are one of the three leading institutions of the World
>Environment Fund and we are confident to significantly expand our
>mission". He illustrated how donor countries are preparing a
>conference to help Mozambique, recently affected by intense floods.
>
>When questioned about UNDP plans to arrest the feminization of
>poverty, he answered UNDP will promote women's education, give small
>credits to develop that social sector and improve job access.
>
>Mark Malloch has chaired the Development Program since April 1999;
>UNDP is the largest UN organization subsidizing development.
>
>He arrived in Havana Tuesday to attend the South Summit that is
>analyzing globalization's impact on Third World economies, relations
>with the industrialized North, cooperation among underdeveloped
>nations, and access to knowledge and technology. DIG/CCS
>
> AFTER THE SUMMIT, SOME PRESIDENTS STAY FOR OFFICIAL VISIT
>
>HAVANA, Apr 14, (PL) Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Lao
>and Cape Verde Prime Ministers, Sisavath Keobounphanh and Alberto
>Wahnon de Carvalho Veiga, respectively, will begin their official
>visits in Cuba tomorrow.
>
>Granma daily reported the officials' stay in the Island at President
>Fidel Castro Ruz invitation after the close of the South Summit.
>It published that Cyprus Foreign Affairs Minister, Ioannis
>Kasoulides, will carry out an official visit on Saturday in response
>to the invitation of his Cuban counterpart, Felipe Perez Roque, with
>whom he will hold conversations.
>
>The Algerian president is also president of the African Organization
>for Unity (AOU), whose most recent regular meeting was in Algiers in
>July 1999. Bouteflika is accompanied by a top-level official
>delegation that will leave Cuba on Sunday the 16th.
>
>Cape Verde Prime minister will remain until Monday accompanied by
>the minister of Foreign Business, Rui Figuereido Soares, and other
>government officials, to meet Cuban officials and tour some places of
>interest in Havana.
>
>Granma did not detail Lao Prime minister's stay on the Island,
>but highlighted that "relations between Cuba and Lao have been
>characterized by collaboration and cooperation principles, based on
>the defense of socialist interests." South Summit brought together
>delegations from 122 G-77 member countries, 42 heads of state and
>government, 13 vice-presidents or vice-prime ministers, 67
>chancellors, as well as royalty, ministers and ambassadors.
>
>The Summit began Monday with the meeting of high officials, ministers
>met on Tuesday and heads of state and government began their
>exchange, focused on the developing world perspectives in the face of
>globalization, on Wednesday. OM/CCS
>
>International:
>
>UNDP STILL LOOKS TO AFRICA, BUT WITH A CERTAIN INADEQUACY
> BY ULISES CANALES
>
>HAVANA, Apr 14 (PL) Africa, with almost the all the poor people
>living in our world, represents a real headache today for the United
>Nations Development Program (UNDP), which, when talking about
>reducing poverty, has to make an exception of this continent.
>
>Half our resources are being invested in Africa, but I want to leave
>the message that it is not an easy task to eliminate poverty there,
>warned UNDP General Administrator Mark Malloch Brown in exclusive
>statements to Prensa Latina.
>
>Malloch Brown, who is attending the South Summit in Cuba, explained
>that his institution is promoting a strategy of three basic points:
>to encourage economic growth, better governability and poor
>countries' access to knowledge and technology of information.
>This strategy seeks, by the year 2015, to reduce by half the 1
>billion 200 million people who live with less than a dollar daily, he
>explained.
>
>I don't want to over-simplify the African drama by saying these three
>points are going to eliminate poverty, they are only three main
>factors, which, incorporated into a more complex program, could be
>useful to, at least, ease the problem, said the UN official.
>When we analyze poverty in the world -he commented- one of the first
>factors we analyze is lack of institutions representing poor people
>within each country's structures.
>
>Besides ability to govern well, nationally as much as locally or
>globally, Malloch expressed his desire to benefit Africa with a
>dispensation or forgiveness of the foreign debt, to provide poor
>countries access to markets immediately, and to revise international
>institutional structures.
>
>He also defended creating new architectures to confront
>global, environmental and other problems, with more participation by
>rich countries in promoting a more just international system, and
>working with the private sector in new technologies, especially
>Internet and cellular phone communications.
>
>Defender of progress, conscious there are one billion illiterate
>people in the world, he considers it a good opportunity for poor
>countries "to jump stages and for its population to have rapid access
>to the new Internet technology".
>
>In South Saharan Africa's case, with 9 per cent of the world's
>population and only 0.1 per cent of them with access to Internet,
>Malloch Brown emphasized that in many villages where people have
>access to Internet "there are positive transformations".
>
>He mentioned the possibility of correspondence courses for children,
>medical services by correspondence and access to information of
>national and international markets for the economic agents of the
>village. JCT/CCS
>
> TRUCE GIVES OXYGEN TO MORIBOND CLOLOMBIAN PEACE PROCESS BY LUIS
>ENRIQUE GONZALEZ
>
>BOGOTA, Apr 14 (PL) A new opportunity for peace in Colombia emerged
>with the beginning of National Liberation Army's (ELN) unilateral
>truce for the coming Easter week.
>
>The second insurgent movement's central command gave the cease-fire
>order beginning last Wednesday at midnight to allow free movement to
>resorts over the country's highways, controlled for more than a week
>by rebel units. The decision occasioned much praise in Colombian
>society, especially in the military headquarters, represented by
>Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez.
>
>Ramirez called the unilateral truce a goodwill gesture by the
>insurgents, added to the humanitarian decision to liberate five
>officials of a plane that deviated from its route in April 1999.
>
>The ELN political offensive is evident as they added a proposal to
>meet with sectors of the society in the country or abroad, to analyze
>preparations for the delayed National Peace Convention.
>
>The rebel actions practically disarmed President Andres Pastrana who
>emerged negatively again by failing to agree to demilitarize a
>northern territory to convoke a peace forum.
>
>An ELN report given to Prensa Latina today indicates that the good
>news is for every Colombian interested in Peace.
>
>Nevertheless, the temporary character of the cease-fire is clear,
>while waiting for an adequate response from Casa de Narino to find
>political solutions to decades of bloodletting.
>
>The order to halt the military campaign came at the moment the
>highways of the entire Caribbean coast to Valle del Cauca and
>Medellin outskirts, including Cartagena de Indias beach resort, is
>under absolute ELN control.
>
>ELN called for an indefinite truce; they don't want to dialogue
>with President Pastrana, but left a door open for him to take a step
>on the path to dialogues. JCT/CCS
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