Cuba and Venezuela Strengthen Cooperation. CUBA, November 4, 2010.- Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca affirmed that bilateral cooperation ties with Venezuela are stronger than ever. Speaking at the 28th International Trade Fair of Havana (FIHAV 2010), Malmierca said that bilateral trade over the past five years reached $17 billion or an average $3 billion per year. He added that Venezuela is Cuba’s top trading partner, supplying the Caribbean island nation with fuel, lubricants, chemical products, herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers and products of the metal mechanical industry. At the same time, Cuba provides Venezuela with medicines, medical equipment and other supplies, and health professional services under a comprehensive bilateral agreement signed in 2000 by then Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Cuban specialists also play a key role in the training of Venezuelan health professionals and in the implementation of several social programs carried out by the Venezuelan government in the fields of education, culture, public health and sports. This type of cooperation agreements have become a common practice among the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA) --a regional mechanism for integration and cooperation that includes Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, among other Latin American and Caribbean nations. The Venezuelan Vice-Minister of Finances Margarita Garcia expressed hope that bilateral commercial relations will continue and strengthen even further so as to bring several different initiatives to fruition. (Cubaminrex-RHC)
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