Belize and Cuba renew medical agreement
Cuban medical professionals started coming to Belize in 1999 through a cooperation agreement between the two countries. Since then, the visiting doctors and nurses have treated tens of thousands of Belizeans throughout the length and breadth of the country. And it’s a practice that is going to continue, at least for the next three years, as this afternoon officials inked an agreement recommitting to the partnership. Signing on behalf of the Cubans was First Deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, while Minister of Health Jose Coye and Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay did the honours for Belize. According to Coye, the initiative provides an invaluable service, picking up the slack in Belize’s health system, particularly in rural areas.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“What the agreement is doing is indeed to renew the contribution in terms of the human resource. Today presently we enjoy a number of sixty-three physicians from Cuba, which is made up of forty-five general practitioners, eighteen specialists, which work in the secondary, tertiary care for our country. It also provides nurses, which are very much needed in the rural areas and in addition to that, we have engineers, x-ray technicians, occupational therapists. What this agreement is doing in essence is to say, this is what Cuba is providing for Belize. We in return are being asked very little in the sense that we need to meet certain expenses which is nowhere near to what we would have had to pay if we were paying at the market price for this contribution.”
Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, 1st Deputy Foreign Minister, Cuba
“The excellent bilateral relations between both countries is a model of a different world, a new kind of international order, a possibility of having strong bonds of fruitful cooperation beneficial to both our peoples. I am deeply honoured signing this new agreement. I am sure that it will be beneficial; it will improve the level of our bilateral cooperation in health matters. This is a special opportunity to work together, to exchange views, to learn from each other and our doctors, our professors, after their experience in Belize are better human beings. They learn very much from this experience. “
In addition to the medical brigade, Cuba’s assistance to Belize includes scholarships for students to attend universities in that country. The minister and his delegation leave Belize on Wednesday.
