Importance of the Group of 77 and China summit in Havana highlighted

By María Josefina Arce

September is beginning and Havana is preparing for the Group of 77 and China Summit, which will take place in the middle of this month, and which arouses the interest of many for its importance to join efforts and put science and technology in terms of socio-economic development of the nations of the South.

For UN Secretary General António Guterres , the meeting in the Cuban capital will be of vital importance to put the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015, back on track.

Guterrez, who will participate in the event, said in statements to the press that he will call to use science and technology for good, and advance in the achievement by 2030 of those goals ranging from the end of poverty, zero hunger, to the reduction of inequalities.

Under the slogan "Current Development Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation", the Summit will be held on the 15th and 16th and will address the need for cooperation in these areas among the 134 member countries of the mechanism, which represent 80% of the world's population.

When he extended the invitation, Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel considered that scientific and technical progress, which is key to sustainable development, is, however, inaccessible to a large part of humanity.

This aspect was also addressed by the Cuban leader at the BRICS summit, held recently in the South African city of Johannesburg, in which Cuba participated in its capacity as pro tempore president of the Group of 77 and China.

Precisely, the Asian giant has expressed its confidence in the contribution that the meeting in Havana will bring to developing nations.

Beijing has pointed out that it will undoubtedly deepen the collaboration among all the member states of this group, the broadest and most diverse in the multilateral sphere.

In January of this year, Cuba assumed for the first time the pro tempore presence of the Group of 77 and China, which emerged in 1964 and in which the Greater of the Antilles has a broad participation.

And as part of that important responsibility, this year Havana hosted events of the mechanism, such as the meetings of the Ministers of Education, Culture and Tourism.Cuba has taken seriously its commitment to work for the aspirations of the South to be heard and taken into account and for the well-being of those peoples, which as a member country of the Group of 77 and China has always been a priority of its foreign policy.