In his opening speech at the G77+China Summit, which opened at Havana’s International Conference Center on Friday, Díaz-Canel condemned the current international order that limits the possibilities of the States with fewer resources to develop and perpetuates a cycle of technological dependency.
It is the people of the South the most affected by poverty, hunger, misery, deaths from curable diseases, illiteracy, human displacement and other consequences of underdevelopment, he expressed.
The Cuban head of State added that this condition was due to centuries of colonial and neocolonial dependence, and that the South no longer bears the dead weight of all the misfortunes.
“The only valid path for this world ship does not end up like the Titanic is cooperation, solidarity, the African philosophy of Ubuntu, which understands human progress without exclusions, where the pain and hope of each one is the pain and the hope of all,” he stated.
The Cuban President pointed out that the achievements and breakthroughs of Science, Technology and Innovation – the themes of the Summit – will contribute to achieving zero hunger, health care, well-being, clean water, gender equality and economic growth, among other aspects.
“It is necessary to break down the international barriers that have hindered the developing countries from having access to knowledge and their use of such determining factors for economic and social progress,” he said.
These obstacles are associated with an unjust and unsustainable international economic order, which perpetuates privileged conditions for the developed countries and relegates a majority of humanity to conditions of underdevelopment, Díaz-Canel pointed out.
“The Internet has erased spatial and temporal boundaries, but its vast possibilities are beyond everyone’s reach,” he said.
Far from becoming tools to fill gaps, patent policies tend to become weapons to deepen those differences, break the will of many governments and protect the system of exploitation and plunder that for several centuries has fueled the wealth of the former colonial powers, he noted.
This explains why, in the midst of the most colossal scientific-technical development of all time, the world has gone back three decades in terms of reducing extreme poverty and has recorded levels of hunger not seen since 2005, he remarked.
We have the duty to try to change the rules of the game and we will only achieve this if we mobilize joint actions, Díaz-Canel emphasized.
The G77+China Summit, whose pro tempore presidency Cuba holds, will conclude on Saturday.
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