http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/marzo/juev1/09acuerdan-i.html
Cuba and Venezuela sign agreements for $1.5 billion in projects
. First Vice President Raúl Castro leads final session of 7th Meeting of Joint
Intergovernmental Commission
THE approval of 355 cooperation projects worth $1.5 billion was the outcome of
the 7th meeting of the Cuba-Venezuela Joint Intergovernmental Commission. The
closing session, on the evening of February 28, was led by General of the Army
Raúl Castro, first vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers.
Ministers Martha Lomas and Rafael Ramírez sign the Final Declaration
of the 7th Meeting of the
Cuba-Venezuela Joint Commission.
A framework agreement was signed during the meeting providing for the
establishment in Venezuela of 11 ethanol plants and the development of
sugarcane production for that purpose. Rafael Ramírez, Venezuelan minister of
energy and oil, and Martha Lomas, Cuban minister of foreign investment and
economic cooperation, signed the document as the presidents of the Joint
Commission representing their respective governments.
That program is part of joint efforts to protect the environment, reduce
consumption of fossil fuel and promote alternative energy sources.
The alcohol obtained from sugar cane is to be utilized in a mixture for
gasoline production, with proven economic and environmental advantages. In this
way, Cuba and Venezuela are implementing the concept of not using grains [such
as corn] for producing fuel, given that it would be detrimental to the already
precarious food situation of millions of human beings on the planet.
In addition, contracts were prepared for supplying the first four ethanol
plants and were signed by Rafael Ramírez and Ulises Rosales del Toro, Cuban
minister of sugar.
The meeting's Final Declaration was also approved, and signed by Ramírez and
Martha Lomas. That document sums up the work carried out by the two delegations
since the meetings of working commissions in Caracas as a preparatory stage for
this meeting. The Declaration also assesses the implementation of the 2006
cooperation program that came out of the Joint Commission's sixth meeting, and
includes appendixes with a detailed list of the 2007 projects, their respective
budgets and the general conditions of methodology and proceedings for
implementing the agreement.
According to the Joint Declaration of the 7th meeting, presented by Martha
Lomas, the Cuba-Venezuela Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement, approved on
October 30, 2000 by Fidel and Chávez, is expanding annually in magnitude,
diversity and complexity.
That can be seen by significant quantitative and qualitative results in the
principal economic and social sectors, including health, education, sports,
energy, sugarcane production and that of other agricultural areas, informatics
and communications, constituting a valuable contribution to the emergence of
the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), to whose fulfillment
Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez have dedicated such tremendous effort.
In the health sector, the document cites examples including the Barrio Adentro
I Program (Into the Neighborhood), which since its start in April 2003 has
provided more than 223 million medical consultations and related activities in
Venezuela with the participation of Cuban doctors.
Progress is also being made by the Barrio Adentro II program, which includes
307 Comprehensive Diagnostics Centers, 406 Comprehensive Rehabilitation Wards
and 11 High Technology Centers. It is expected that the program will conclude
in July with the opening of 600 of the first facilities, 600 of the second and
35 of the third.
Under both programs, a total of 84,962 lives have been saved.
Another program, Operation Miracle, which began in July 2004, met its goal of
providing 300,000 operations for various eyesight conditions by the end of
2006, and has now exceeded 315,000. Eleven new ophthalmological centers with 27
surgical posts are now operating in Venezuela.
The Declaration also notes that in the area of education, some 20,000 students
are being educated as doctors in Venezuela by Cuban professors under the Barrio
Adentro program, and about 2,400 of them are studying in Cuba at various
educational institutions.
The Mission Robinson program, for its part, using the Cuban "I Can Do It"
literacy method complimented by teaching materials, contributed to Venezuela
being able to proclaim itself, on October 28, 2005, an illiteracy-free country,
after more than 1.5 million people learned how to read and write. Some 400
Cuban advisers continue to be part of everyday labors in the Venezuelan
education system.
Likewise, it was noted that trade between the two countries has increased from
$912 million in the year 2000 to a record figure of $2.64 billion in 2006.
During the meeting, a photography exhibition was opened featuring images of the
close friendship between Fidel and Chávez. The exhibit's opening was led by
Venezuelan poet Tarek William, who is also governor of the state of Anzoátegui.
The closing session, held at the International Convention Center in Havana, was
attended by Carlos Lage, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of
Ministers, and Bruno Rodríguez, interim minister of foreign affairs; Alí
Rodríguez and Germán Sánchez, the ambassadors of Venezuela in Havana and Cuba
in Caracas, respectively; a large group of ministers, deputy ministers, state
governors and business executives from the land of Bolívar, and leaders of the
Communist Party and government of Cuba
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