Havana, September 15 (RHC)-- Mexico's Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena proposed this Friday at the Summit of the Group of 77 (G77) being held at the Havana Convention Palace, to decree September 16 as International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation of the South.

Speaking on behalf of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the plenary session of the Summit, Bárcena said that her country will continue to join the G77, which brings together two-thirds of the members of the United Nations and 80 percent of the world's population, making it a very important entity in the international agenda on financing and development.

"The G77 and China is a transcendent forum to achieve an articulate voice in favor of sustainable development in the South in all areas and for those who create wealth in the countryside, cities and mines," he added.

She referred to the urgencies of humanity and considered it essential to build a better world with the support of the bloc, to speak with one voice in what concerns us, such as South-South relations and cooperation.

The head of Mexican diplomacy emphasized that the development of technologies and innovation is key to this, as was demonstrated with the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit poor countries hardest and laid bare the asymmetries and scientific gaps, and the reality of a pharmaceutical monopoly.

He pointed out that Mexico, from its presidency at the time of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, worked in favor of the region's health self-sufficiency, with regulatory mechanisms to boost production capacities and a Latin American network with the creation of drugs and vaccines in countries with the conditions to produce them.

In this regard, he mentioned Cuba, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Chile and the possibility of promoting the creation, expansion and sustainability of industries and laboratories, and achieving self-sufficiency in medicines, vaccines, medical equipment and breaking down copyright barriers.

He gave as an example that Mexico works with Cuba, a country that collaborates in the modernization of the health plan with more than 800 medical specialists, and the supply, at the time of the pandemic, of the Abdala vaccine, which they will continue to obtain.

He called attention to the central issue of financing sustainable development and the capacity of the countries to achieve it due to the unfair foreign debt and the crises that continue to indebt them, which distances them from the proposed health goals.

She advocated the application of a new vision to financially support the region's development.

Bárcena condemned and strongly denounced the US blockade of Cuba and demanded that Washington remove it from its unilateral list of alleged sponsors of terrorism which, far from being so, complies with international standards against money laundering and drug trafficking and denounced that there can be no unilateral or bilateral sanctions of any kind, as the United States does.