The first meeting of the Technical Executive Secretariat of the recently created Council of Agriculture Ministers of Petrocaribe is underway at Havana’s Palco Hotel.
Made up by Nicaragua, Honduras, Suriname, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba, the Council works on behalf of PetroCaribe’s 18 member nations.
During the opening ceremony, the Cuban Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Marta Lomas, highlighted that this meeting takes place scarcely one month after the 5th PetroCaribe Summit was held in Maracaibo, Venezuela, reported Cuban television today.
Lomas also made reference to the ministerial meeting for agriculture and rural development –which had Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as its venue– where the strategy to implement this initiative was devised.
Our countries are totally absorbed, she said, in the search for formulas and initiatives to face the severe food crisis resulting from speculation and protectionist measures, such as farm subsidies in developed nations, the use of food to make fuel, and the high cost of essential consumables, according to the statement made at the end of the
Tegucigalpa meeting. The council will be in charge of preparing and proposing a Treaty for
Food Safety.
Participants in the meeting will also try to define the mechanisms necessary to administer the Oil Fund, proposed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, which will be used to support small and medium-size
farmers. They will also focus on the projects prioritized by each country in the agricultural and food sectors.
That funding will also be used in integral agricultural innovation and development plans of PetroCaribe member nations.
The meeting will make it possible to advance the initiative known as ALBA-ALIMENTOS (ALBA-FOOD), which emerged under the umbrella of the olivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) to support the region’s fforts in view of the world food crisis and high prices of food being xperienced today.
The creation of the PetroCaribe Council of Agriculture Ministers onsolidates cooperation between peoples under the principles of olidarity and true regional integration advocated by ALBA, concluded he source.