BuaNews (Tshwane)
Nthambeleni Gabara
31 March 2008
Pretoria — Nuclear physicist and former President of Cuba Fidel Castro's son, Professor Diaz-Balart Castro has described education as the first pillar in bridging the digital and technological divide.
During a public lecture in South Africa about the technological advancement in his country on Monday, the professor said in his country they had focused on encouraging education to ensure they advanced technologically.
"For us to become scientifically advanced in biotechnology, we embarked on eradicating illiteracy some decades ago, through encouraging people to regard education as the first pillar in order to be technological advanced," he said.
Professor Castro arrived in South Africa on Sunday on a science mission.
Mr Castro emphasised the importance of biotechnology and nanotechnology, saying biotechnology is technology based on biology used the fields of agriculture, food, science and medicine.
He said that biotechnology in his country had its beginning in the 1980's and it was embraced in a quest to distance it Gross National Product (GNP) from complete dependency on commodities such as sugar.
In terms of boosting education, Cuba has allocated tens of millions of Dollars to construct state of the art institutions.
"In the past decades, we've managed to build about 66 universities that specialise in medicine and science related fields.
"We've also about 600 000 people studying in higher learning institutions," he said.
He said Cuba is presently constructing one of the best healthcare systems to produce their own drug vaccines.
South Africa's science and technology relations with Cuba began in 2001, when the two countries signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation with a special focus on biotechnology.
Science and Technology Minister, Mosibudi Mangena said South Africa will benefit greatly from Cuba success in the area of vaccines, interferon and monoclonal antibodies.
According to the minister, South Africa will soon form part of the technology innovation agency.
"We are both determined to learn from each other as these will improve the well-being our people," he said.
The minister said that the technology innovation agency is a state owned entity that will be launched soon by President Thabo Mbeki.
"This will help us commercialise results of research by scientists, institutions and universities," he said.
As the relations between the two countries include the exchange of human resource, training and technical expertise, the minister said that they will be very soon begun to exchange researchers.
"We will be sending our researchers to Cuba to learn and impart their skills, while at the same time Cuba will also sent its researchers to our country," he said.
Mr Castro will have the opportunity to meet former President Nelson Mandela during his short trip.
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