CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

The ALBA is an Honorable Response to Industrialized North, says Cuban First VP

CUBA, June 25, 2009. The Bolivarian Alternative for Our Americas (ALBA) is the most honorable response to the patterns of the industrialized North, said Cuba's First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura during the 6th Extraordinary Summit of the Regional Integration Mechanism, held in the Venezuelan city of Maracay.

Consolidating this regional integration initiative is the only way to make the dreams of Latin American independence heroes come true, he pointed out, and expressed the satisfaction of Cuba, of President Raul Castro and Revolution leader Fidel Castro for the joining by Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda of the ALBA.

“We are now nine full members of this unitary project, which proofs its viability and sustainability, based on proposed concepts and concrete results,” he stressed and went to explain that the integration mechanism has allowed for the development of a political and social agenda initially focused on very sensitive sectors like health and education.

This fact allowed advancing towards strategic development sectors, such as food security, energy and new commercial and financial projects, Machado Ventura pointed out and alerted that the ALBA must face the huge challenge posed by the deep global crisis originated in capitalist developed countries.

The countries that have gathered here, convinced of their own goals and objectives, consider that a lasting and sustainable response to the crisis is recognizing a new economic development system, which places human beings at the center of all concerns, said the Cuban top government official.

He also stressed some of the achievements of the regional integration initiative in the social , economic and investment fields, particularly the goals reached by the Petrocaribe regional program which supplies oil to 10 nations under favorable conditions, the ALBA Bank and the frame agreement to set up a regional currency called SUCRE.

The ALBA is an organization particularly different and sustainable that is not excluding and may operate parallel to other integration mechanisms under mutual respect, Machado noted and concluded by stressing the need to keep defending concepts and ways to strengthen relations among the nations of the region.(Cubaminrex- ACN)

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