Speaking virtually at the United Nations high-level meeting on middle-income countries, Cuba’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX), Ana Teresita Gonzalez, discussed the challenges these countries face amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Access to foreign financing, the achievement of special and differential treatment in trade matters and international cooperation are decisive in the complex global political, social and economic landscape, aggravated by the effects of the health crisis, she said.

She also spoke about the urgent need for industrialized countries to fulfill, without conditions, their historic commitment to contribute 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product to Official Development Assistance.

My country reaffirms its full commitment to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and reiterates its call to work together for a more prosperous, just and inclusive world, she stressed.

MINCEX first deputy minister also provided details of Cuba’s constant work in the implementation of the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030, whose strategic issues pursue full compliance with the SDGs, despite the tightening of the US blockade.

She also underscored the central importance that Cuba gives to South-South cooperation, which, although not a substitute for the much-needed North-South cooperation, is a valuable tool to search for solutions to shared problems.

In line with this principle, Gonzalez said, Cuba has developed cooperation programs in more than 150 countries, and thousands of Cuban collaborators are currently contributing to the fight against the pandemic in more than 30 countries and territories.

mh/aph/ga/ifb