Riyadh, September 21st – The Minister of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prof. Fahad bin Abdulrahman Al-Jalajel, paid a successful working visit to Cuba from September 19th to 21st, which concluded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of health at the ministerial level. The document was signed together with his Cuban counterpart, Dr. Jose Angel Portal Miranda.
Prof. Al-Jalajel was accompanied in this visit by a large high-level delegation, made up of representatives of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, the SEHA Virtual Hospital and several ministerial executives.
During his stay on the Island, the Saudi minister met with his Cuban counterpart, Dr. Portal Miranda, as well as with several senior Cuban officials and experts to discuss different ways and means of exchanging experiences and knowledge in the health sector.
Throughout the official talks, the Cuban minister said that Cuba and Saudi Arabia are embarking on a new path to strengthen and diversify cooperation in the health sector. For his part, the Saudi counterpart said that the memorandum of understanding signed strengthens relations of friendship and cooperation for sustainable development between our nations.
Likewise, the visitor was received in audience by the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez, who expressed that his visit confirmed the important moment in which diplomatic and political relations between our two countries are and ratified the willingness to continue developing bilateral ties in different spheres, including medical collaboration in the Kingdom.
The minister and the accompanying delegation had the opportunity to visit the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, BioCubaFarma business group, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), “Hermanos Ameijeiras” clinical-surgical hospital and the Center for State Control of Medicines, Equipment and Medical Devices (CECMED), as well as centers of economic-social interest and health tourism in Matanzas province.
Cuba and Saudi Arabia signed on November 25th, 2013, an inter-ministerial executive program for the hiring of Cuban doctors, which is still in force and based on which the first Cuban health professionals began to arrive in the Kingdom on February 16th, 2014. During these 10 years, more than 600 collaborators have fulfilled missions in the Arab nation, some of whom have repeated their stay. (EmbaCuba Arabia Saudita)