Academicians from Cuba and France highlighted today the progress of both nations in the scientific field, as well as the potential for bilateral cooperation in knowledge and technologies for development.
At the opening of the first French-Cuban Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation, the European nation's representative, Françoise Cochaud, said exchanges between the two countries had never ceased, but evolved naturally in the same way as societies.
The Minister of Cooperation of the French embassy in Cuba recalled that such cooperation dated from 1960 and was renewed in 2010 through several legal and funding mechanisms. Among them, he cited the The Priority Solidarity Fund (PSF), which allows teams of experts from both nationalities to work in sectors such as neurosciences, chemistry, agronomy and mathematics with positive results.
He also stated that the Carlos J. Finlay agreement signed on February 17 aimed to facilitate the mobility of Cuban and French researchers.
Scientific cooperation was included in the bilateral economic map signed by the governments in February 2016, which focuses on areas such as health, biotechnology, food, transportation and the environment, he added.