Cuba Seeks To Strengthen And Diversify Relationship With Malaysia - Ambassador

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 (Bernama) -- Cuban ambassador to Malaysia, Ibete Fernandez Hernandez today expressed her deep interest to strengthen and diversify Cuba's relationship with Malaysia. Speaking to Bernama at the closing ceremony of the Fidel Castro Photography Exhibition here, Hernandez said education and research and development (R&D) were among the areas that Cuba was interested to look into. "We need more people who are fluent in English to teach our kids in Cuba. I have plans to meet with the respective Malaysian authorities to discuss further on this. "One way to do this is through a teacher exchange programme... but we are also looking at bringing our students (Cuban) here to Malaysia to pursue their education," she said. According to the ambassador, talks had already started with Help College of Arts and Technology, which offers a wide range of scholarships to international students. Besides education, Hernandez also wants to expand the relationship in R&D in the sciences, particularly biotechnology. "Malaysia has good facilities and environment such as the labs and technology for doing research in biotechnology. "We, on the other hand, have experienced researchers and vaccine developers. This could be a good platform for both countries to strengthen their relationship," said Hernandez. Sharing Cuba's experience in the field of biotechnology, she said the country had produced eight out of 11 vaccines required by the Cuban people. On trade relations, Hernandez said more needed to be done to boost trade with Malaysia, especially in the import and export of goods and services, adding that the trade value between the two countries was very low. "We do buy Malaysian products such as condensed milk. But we buy it from another country and not directly from Malaysia," she added. Cuba and Malaysia established diplomatic relations 42 years ago in 1975. The photography exhibition, organised by Help College of Arts and Technology from Nov 28 last year, was held in conjunction with the 58th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. -- BERNAMA