Havana, September 13 (RHC-The Japan Times)-- Cuba and Japan are getting ready to announce plans for a medical specialist training center in the Caribbean nation that will feature Japanese technology and equipment.

The move is designed to support the international expansion of Japanese medical technology and services, part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s growth strategies, the sources said Tuesday.

Cuba meanwhile hopes the training center will help boost its health cooperation programs abroad.

According to the sources, Abe wants to be the first Japanese prime minister to visit Cuba after attending the U.N. General Assembly starting in New York on September 20.

Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry noted that Cuba sent some 25,000 doctors to African and Latin American countries in 2013. The Abe administration is banking on these Cuban doctors helping to promote Japanese medical equipment in the countries they visit, the sources said.