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Cuba and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) signed memorandums of understanding for cooperation in disaster prevention and promote tourism as a multi-destination in the region.
‘This memorandum is expected to be a broader agreement later, and it is especially important because it will capture the continuity of the work we have been doing with all Caribbean nations,’ explained to Prensa Latina General Ramon Pardo Guerra, chief of the Cuban Civil Defense.
Pardo signed the document with his counterpart of the Emergency and Disaster Management Agency in the Caribbean as part of the purposes of the 4th bilateral summit Cuba-CARICOM, recently concluded in this resort locality in southern Antigua and Barbuda.
He pinpointed that the Civil Defense has spent years working with Caribbean authorities in the exchange of preparation and training of staff and workshops sponsored by the UN.
In several countries, risk reduction management centers have been reproduced, which is an instrument to carry out studies on natural, technological, health and other types of disasters, he pointed out.
All this shows that there is a will to face this situation -the passage of hurricanes- and the prospect that they will be stronger every time, therefore, we have to prepare and act according to prevention, which is daily and is what this memorandum intends, he concluded.
The Minister of Tourism of Cuba Manuel Marrero told Cuban journalists accredited to the summit that the initiative is part of the cooperation with the CARICOM countries, to expand it since a multi-destination memorandum with Jamaica had already been signed and Trinidad and Tobago.
The current document included signing with all the CARICOM countries, but ‘we have a challenge to carry out this, and that is to solve the connectivity problems that exist between the Caribbean islands themselves’.
Marrero told Prensa Latina that there are currently links among Cuba and seven of the 14 islands of CARICOM and there is interest in continuing to improve.
‘I think that because of the destination of the Caribbean, which is already one of the most important in the world, this initiative can make all the people who travel to this region much more attractive, since they can visit several territories in a single trip,’ he said.
He pointed out that it is planned to increase the use of cruises that predominate in the Caribbean, which has already become the most intense region in the exploitation of these means of transport around the world, but warned of the inconveniences of this type of leisure.
Unfortunately, in many of these islands several cruises enter a day for a few hours and do not leave great benefits. We have defended our cruise policy that we see it as a complement, he added.
‘We defend,’ he stressed, ‘the accommodation in the hotels and that tourists come to enjoy the beauties of Cuba and sleep in our hotels, and we try to ensure that cruise ships at least spend the night in the country.’ (Taken from Prensa Latina)
