By Chris Chapman
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Cuba will send 260 more healthcare workers to Haiti and create a boat-building program for Haitian fishermen under a new agreement to provide technical assistance to its impoverished Caribbean neighbor, an Haitian official said.
The agreement was reached in a three-day meeting in Port-au-Prince between Cuban and Haitian government ministers. Anthony Dessources, Haiti's Minister for Planning and External Cooperation, told Reuters on Thursday the meeting was "thoroughly positive" and focused on health and
agriculture.
The document signed by Dessources and the Cuban Minister of Fishing, Orlando Rodriguez Romay, allowed for an increase in the number of Cuban health professionals working in Haiti from the present 540 to 800 by March.
"The Cuban health professionals -- doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians -- give us the possibility of providing health care across the whole of the country," Dessources said.
Cuba will also send four "school boats" to Haiti to provide training for Haitian fishermen and set up a program to construct 100 fiberglass boats that will allow Haitian fishers to extend their range of activity, Dessources said.
Also discussed were Cuban technical assistance to Haiti's Faculty of Agronomy; support for Haiti's sugar processing industry; linguistic exchanges; cooperation to encourage tourism; and plans for a joint Cuban-Haitian soap opera.
"I hope the meeting sends a signal to our other partner countries, because Haiti will need financial assistance to put some of these programs into practice," Dessources said.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere with average annual per capita income of about $250.
The first such meeting took place in Havana in November 1998 and a third is planned for November of this year.
17:31 01-14-00
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