And while Coye hopes he can bring the BMDA back to the table, today, he was more concerned with providing primary health care access to the 50% of the Belizean population that live in rural areas. Cuba's first deputy Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriquez Parilla visited Belize to renew Cuba's medical assistance programme to Belize. It will provide 63 doctors, that is, 45 general practitioners and 18 specialists, along with nurses and technicians for three more years. Today Coye said it makes a great difference for the quality of life of rural Belizeans.
Hon. Jose Coye,
"The agreement is saying yes we sign this with you for three years, we will continue to provide these resources to the country of Belize and you are to meet certain expenses which are quite minimal. The contribution, I would put it, Mr. Minister, that we can quantify it in the market sense in terms of dollars as to what it is but to be very truthful we can never quantify it in terms of the contribution it is making to our people. And it is in the rural areas that we have found the gap, the deficit in terms of our people accessing primary care, fundamental care and it is in this area that you have a tremendous contribution Cuba.
Concurrently the government of Cuba has contributed to this country a tremendous amount of scholarships for physicians, for doctors, and it is under this arrangement that while they are providing from what they have in Cuba, they are also training Belizeans to meet these deficiencies in our country."
Bruno Rodriquez Parilla, Deputy Foreign Minister - Cuba
"I am sure that, I'm certain that it will be really beneficial. It will improve the level of our bilateral cooperation in health matters. It will make easier the job of our wonderful physicians and paramedics working in Belize and it will permit to have a stronger, more direct impact of a job of the health situation in Belize."
Rodriguez Parilla also told the media that Cuba's president, the ailing Fidel Castro will make a recovery.
