Algerian-Cuban Joint Commission: Several cooperation agreements, crowning privileged relations, on agenda
By: Hana Saada
ALGIERS- The Cuban capital Havana is hosting from this Tuesday, February 13, the 23rd session of the Algerian-Cuban Joint Commission, in the wake of the visit made to Algeria, last November, by the Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez.
The 23rd session of the Algerian-Cuban Joint Commission will be held from February 13 to 15 in the Cuban capital, Havana. Health Minister Abdelhak Saihi is leading the Algerian delegation to take part in this session aimed to assess bilateral relations in light of the “recommendations of the previous session”. During this new session, “several agreements and memoranda of cooperation will be signed in the fields of the pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, higher education, youth and sports, tourism and culture, and others,” the ministry statement said. According to the same source, a forum of businessmen from the two countries is slated for February 14 and 15, on the sidelines of this session, bringing under one roof several public and private Algerian economic companies.
In a related context, the Cuban Ambassador to Algeria, Armando Vergara Bueno, was received by the Minister of Health Abdelhak Saihi. The two parties welcomed the level and depth of the historic bilateral relations that bind the two countries, particularly in the field of health services, and expressed their hope to further deepen and strengthen them to serve the common interest of the two countries. This meeting was devoted to the study of the main issues to be discussed during the work of the 23rd session of the Algerian-Cuban Joint Commission for Economic, Commercial, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation. This session will be co-chaired, on the Algerian side, by Health Minister Abdelhak Saihi and Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, on the Cuban side.
It will extend to other sectors, including energy, tourism, culture and others, according to a press release from the ministry posted on its official Facebook page.
In this regard, the two parties agreed on the need to redouble their efforts to bring the work of the joint commission to a successful conclusion in order to conclude fruitful partnerships. As a reminder, the Minister of Health and his Cuban counterpart, José Angel Portal agreed, in December 2022, to ink memoranda of understanding between the ministries of the two countries aimed at ensuring more specialties according to the needs expressed. These are three partnership projects, in this case; the training of Algerian general practitioners in gynecology-obstetrics, radiology and resuscitation as well as specialized training in ophthalmology, in addition to cooperation and the exchange of experiences with the Pasteur Institute of Algeria (IPA) in the areas of vaccine development and production.
Besides and in the framework of the enhancement of the commercial and economic relations between Algeria and Cuba, the General Director of the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ms. Nadira Fathi, received on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at the Chamber’s headquarters, Mr. Armando Vergara Bueno, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in Algeria.
This meeting was part of the final preparations for the transfer of a delegation of Algerian businessmen to Havana (Cuba) to participate in the Cuban-Algerian Business Forum.
During this meeting, the economic and commercial relations between the two countries were discussed, as well as the mechanisms that should be put in place to strengthen these relations and raise them to the level of distinction existing in the political relations that unite the two friendly and revolutionary countries.
On this occasion, the General Director expressed the willingness of the Chamber to contribute together with the Cuban side to revitalize and strengthen this cooperation and accompany Algerian companies in order to access foreign markets and promote their products by intensifying the activity of the Algerian-Cuban Business Council and organizing forums to present investment and partnership opportunities between the two countries.
In the same context, she underscored the great importance that “Algeria attaches to ties with Cuba in terms of investment and association”, highlighting the advantages offered by the new investment law due to the attractive facilities and flexible procedures it contemplates for national and foreign investors.
Noting that on the eve of the holding of the 23rd session of the Algerian-Cuban Joint Commission, His Excellency the Cuban Ambassador in Algiers Armando Vergara Bueno declared to Algérie 54, that the holding of this session “is in line with the commitments made by the high authorities of the two countries, following the visit of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez to Algiers”. The Cuban ambassador, who has deployed tireless efforts, since his arrival in Algiers, to promote historical and economic ties between the two friendly countries, welcomed the dynamics of relations between Algiers and Havana, lauding President Tebboune’s decision to grant aid to Cuba, which, for more than 60 years, has faced an arbitrary blockade imposed by the United States of America. On another level, Mr. Armando Vergara referred to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the dispatch of a Cuban medical mission to Algeria, to be held next May, as a sign of solidarity and the fight against imperialism and colonialism, and the commemoration, in next October, of the 60th anniversary of the dispatch of Cuban soldiers to Algeria to support the young independent republic in confronting Moroccan aggression during the war of the sands.
